Launching a multi-owned CUSO can be a challenge, but significant benefits await those with focus and perseverance.

University of Wisconsin Credit Union in Madison with $730 million in assets have begun using RSS news feeds to update members on its monthly website content.

When the Federal Reserve started to lower short-term interest rates in 2001 Tony Gilreath, chief financial officer of Founders Federal Credit Union, Lancaster, South Carolina said the CU’s board and management wasted no time. “We’re liability sensitive. We couldn’t afford a delayed reaction. Seeing the benefit of a lower coast of funds, we lowered rates, too,” said Gilreath. But that’s only one as

After reading a story about Nationwide Money Services, Inc., in CU Tech Talk, a credit union newsletter, Jeff Thompson, Web product marketing manager for Bronco FCU, Franklin, Va., called them about placing an ATM in the lobby of one of their select employee group hospitals. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Delta Employees Credit Union (www.decu.org) has undertaken several projects to create interactive membership applications, said Rob Elliott, project manager for the consumer lending and member services department. But in May, 2002 Elliott wrote what he said amounted to a “wish list” of what the perfect (or nearly perfect) system would do to speed interested Web browsers to fully qualified membership.

Part II of a Two-Part Report: As Harriet May, President/CEO of GECU Credit Union in El Paso, Texas asserts, when marketing to the Hispanic community, it's the personal side of service that counts. It's the relationship that's key. These people like to do business by looking in your eye and shaking your hand.

Part I of a Two-Part Report Credit unions have stepped up their outreach to the fastest growing and single largest minority group in America today- Hispanics- starting by understanding cultural differences and following up with customized marketing to attract this diverse yet skeptical group. The reward is that a Credit Union can earn an entire family's loyalty and make further inroads to a commu

In telephony, the acronym POTS stands for Plain Old Telephone Service and the importance of having dial tone and human interaction may have been lost in the technology shuffle, if only temporarily. But the challenge to properly serve Credit Union members when, where and how they need or want that service seems to bring POTS back to its rightful place, as evidenced from presenters at a recent Callahan and Associates Webinar titled, Best Practices in Lending/Call Center Management.

The CEO's performance is equivalent to the credit union's performance- because the CEO is the board's only employee, said Steve Winninger, President/CEO of State Employees CU, Michigan (Assets of $633.5m; 74,993 members). That simple statement reflects the underlying, agreed-upon principle between credit union boards that have adopted the Policy Governance Model developed by John Carver and their CU president/CEOs: the board gets safely out of micro-management, sets policies and delegates work to the CEO, who reports back on a regular basis. It means freedom from minutiae-laden board meetings, and frees CU management to get more things done more efficiently.

The Roman statesman Seneca said, “the mind that is anxious about the future is miserable” so a good sanity check might be to create business plans for a range of possible outcomes. That strategic methodology, called “scenario planning” is rapidly gaining popularity in some credit union circles, and Doug Fecher, president/CEO of Wright-Pat