Many of us are curious as to what banking industry salaries are these days. To quench that curiosity, we invited Crowe Managing Director Tim Reimink on the program to provide the latest findings from their 2018 Crowe Banking Compensation Survey.

Tim provided us with a few of the survey's top findings, along with a few surprises, as well. He also informed us on what these findings mean to the industry and where it's headed in the new year. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

Mitek’s VP of Sales and Development (North America) Mike Nelson joined us on the program to discuss how blockchain, AI, and fraud will shape the financial services industry in 2019.

Some of the key points in our conversation included:

• Blockchain not ready for prime time as an identity platform in 2019
• AI-powered tellers will become the norm
• Account takeover fraud losses will diminish

There's much, much more in our conversation with Mike, so check it out and let us know your thoughts.

Finastra's Managing Director of North America Mike Dionne joins us on the show to share some recent research his company conducted (via Mercator Advisory Group) revealing three technology strategies that will benefit small and midsized financial institutions in 2019.

Some of the key takeaways Mike provided include:

• Consolidation of vendors
• Cloud delivery
• Artificial intelligence (AI)

Lastly, Mike explained what this overall technology picture means for financial services not only for next year but in the years to come. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

If credit unions want to get their memberships younger (that's been an industry goal since I came into the industry way back in the mid-90s), then one of the most effective ways of reaching a younger audience is to get into the schools and educate kids on finance, budgeting, investing, etc. Many credit unions do this very well, while many more need to step up their game in this area.

To help step up your game of provide a refresher, the folks at Currency Marketing are hosting a free 30-minute (11:00-11:30 a.m. PST), webinar on Thursday, Dec. 20, entitled: "4 Essentials Teachers Want In Your Financial Education Curriculum."

Currency Marketing's Nala Henkel-Aislinn joined us on the show to how this "It's a Money Thing"  webinar educates credit unions on how they can get their financial education programs aligned with teacher's needs to better connect with today's students. Quite an eye opener for sure, as Nala outlines the proper steps -- as well as goals on why this topic is so important today for credit unions' future.

Check it out and let us know your thoughts. And don't forget to sign up for the free webinar.

Last year Filene Research Institute held its annual big.bright.minds conference in Austin, Texas and it snowed. Locals there proclaimed that it never snows that time of year -- or ever really.

This year, Filene Research Institute held its annual big.bright.minds conference in San Diego, where it really doesn't have weather except for sun, sun, and more sun. Well, "America's Finest City" threw a curve ball on the conference and delivered a rainstorm for the ages, complete with thunder and lightning, floods, power outages, broken water mains, helicopter rescues, and much, much more.

The Filene hosts and conference attendees didn't let any of that nonsense sway their mission of delivering and digesting second-to-none content that will serve as an ideal way to close out 2018 and springboard into 2019. Some of the timely topics presented and discussed included:

• Disaster recovery (ironically)
• Pandemics
• Credit Unions of the 21st Century
• The Ongoing War for Talent
• Filene Alumni: Where are They Now?
• Effective Prototyping
• Consumer Decision Making
• Financial Insecurity
• Making Innovation Drive the Bottom Line

Check out our big.bright.minds conference wrap up and let us know your thoughts. And I profusely apologize in advance for mispronouncing anybody's name (which I did) and getting job titles wrong (which I also did). Enjoy!