Seeing the latest consumer payment data during the pandemic percolate from various industry surveys and studies has been quite fascinating. It's also been quite an eye opener for credit unions researching this behavior and adjusting strategies to better serve members as the economy tries to restart.

To get details on their survey, we invited SRM EVP Michael Carter on the show. Michael shared key findings from SRM's recent survey that captures financial institution responses and consumer payment patterns in a prolonged pandemic environment.

Here are some of the key findings Michael provided:

• Digital growth, as expected, is well above the pre-pandemic norm
• Nearly half of the institutions reported decreases in credit card activity
• "Expand/Improve Digital Channels" as their most critical initiative going forward (FIs)

Always fascinating and an education talking to Michael. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

It's a safe bet that nearly every business under the sun has or will update their business continuity plans based on what has happened this year. Making these plans as air tight as possible is a big priority right now.

To dive a little deeper into this topic, we invited PolicyWorks Director of Client Partnerships Jeremy Smith and Dupaco Credit Union Senior Vice President, Risk Management & Remote Delivery Todd Link to talk about PolicyWorks providing credit unions with free tool to identify business continuity planning gaps that will set them up for success in a post-COVID world.

Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

It seems everybody in every industry is ramping up digital offerings to keep consumers engaged in your business. Credit unions are no different as we have seen the last several months. What was once a luxury is now a necessity.

That said, San Mateo Credit Union did just that during the pandemic successfully converting to Alkami's online banking and mobile platforms with help from the folks at CUTEK. As a result, San Mateo was able to go live on time with 100% of expected feature functionality to the core, including custom holds for RDC, custom Investments displays, among other things.

San Mateo's VP, Digital Services Ignasio Medrano joined us to provide all the details on this project, sharing the reasons for the conversion, results since the conversion, and much, much more. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

We all know how important it is to give back -- even during tough times. Credit unions live this daily. It's in their DNA and they do what they can to help prompt their members to do the same. The whole community benefits.

To share the value and importance of supporting credit union members giving back, SPIRE Credit Union President/CEO Dan Stoltz and NetGiver Co-founder Eric Berg join us to tell their story on how they are supporting these all-important efforts.

Here's what we asked them:
Dan: From a credit union’s perspective, can you give us the value and importance of giving back to the community, as well as supporting members’ giving efforts?
Eric: From NetGiver’s perspective, what benefits have you  seen credit unions receive from giving?
Dan: What has SPIRE done in this area and what results did you see? (puppies)
Eric: How important is it for a credit union to do something like this right?
Dan: What’s next for SPIRE in the giving arena? Anything COVID-19 related to support your community impacted by the pandemic?
Eric: What have you seen credit unions doing to give back to their communities in response to COVID-19?

Really cool story here. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

Community First Credit Union CEO Todd Sheffield returned to the show to share why they employed an artificial intelligence chatbot named "Maggie" to provide enhanced member service. (Side note: Maggie was the name of the credit union's very first paid employee 55 years ago.)

Todd says AI Maggie, which is located on the credit union's homepage, can answer three categories of questions from members:

1. banter items to give her some personality
2. FAQs for commonly asked questions
3. account access so members can easily access their account information and make transfers (possibly the only credit union in the country that can do this with a chatbot)

Todd adds that he and his tech team added the chatbot because text and chat are two of the most common ways people communicate today. To get ahead of the service curve, they thought it was a good time to implement this automated technology last December (2019).

Since then, usage of the chatbot has steadily risen at a healthy rate -- especially during the pandemic. Todd will even tell you, as he does in our interview, where the chatbot button should be located on the website's homepage. And it's not where you would traditionally see it.

He also shares all the integrations for which they use Maggie -- ultimately, making her a single point of contact for members.

Really a fun interview on yet another way credit unions are being truly innovative serving their members. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.