Tips For Mergers And Navigating The Dark Web

Five can't-miss data points featured this week on CreditUnions.com.

This week, CreditUnions.com provides tips for credit unions undergoing online banking conversions and mergers and lessons in navigating the dark web. We also ask why Pennsylvania credit unions best national averages and if we’ve reached peak auto.

Here are five data points you need to know.

Seven Hours

To prepare for its impending online banking conversion, Educators Credit Union extended hours for its member response center employees. From Monday to Saturday, the center would remain open until 7 p.m., while new Sunday hours stretched from 8 a.m. to3 p.m.In An Education In Online Banking Conversion, the credit union offers best practices for credit unions considering the same.

19.7%

The percentage of Pennsylvania credit union members who hold credit union credit cards. That’s 2.5 percentage points higher than the industry average of 17.2%, according to data from Callahan & Associates.

To learn more about how the financial cooperatives in the Keystone State are efficiently serving members and expanding books of business with current business models, check out State In The Spotlight: Pennsylvania.

Five

Rob Johnson, chief risk officer for banking and payments and head of enterprise risk programs at FIS, recommends financial institutions set up multiple layers of defense throughout the IT environment as well as provide security awareness training forall employees.

To implement a robust, layered defense program, Johnson recommends the FFIEC’s Cybersecurity Assessment Tool, as well as the following SANS list.

First Five Quick Wins:

  1. Application whitelisting.
  2. The use of standard, secure system configurations.
  3. Patch application software within 48 hours.
  4. Patch system software within 48 hours.
  5. Reduce the number of users with administrative privileges.

Check out more security controls and best practices in What Lurks In The Dark Web.

30%

It takes one look at the loan, share, and member growth posted by Public Service Credit Union to know something’s up. Year-over-year member growth exceeds 30%, while loan growth lies near 50% and share growth exceeds 60%. Sounds like there was probably a merger in the credit union’s recent past, right?

Try two mergers and one assumption in the span of four months. To see how the credit union did it and lessons it learned in the process, check out 5 Tips To Survive Multiple Mergers.

17.55 Million

That’s the total number of U.S. vehicle sales in 2016, beating the previous record of 17.47 million set just the year before. That’s according to data from Autodata Corp. It represents the seventh consecutive year of year-over-year sales growth.

That’s great. So enjoy it while it lasts. Because the National Auto Dealers Association expects U.S. sales to drop to 17.1 million in 2017. Why? A variety of factors ranging from rising interest rates, uncertain presidential politics, and self-drivingcars threaten to disrupt the venerable auto industry in the next few years.

Learn more in Have We Reached Peak Auto?

Happy Reading!

January 17, 2017

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