Serve Credit Union, a financial cooperative founded in the “people helping people” spirit in 1931, has expanded its team by two to better serve its members. The credit union has added Kat Sukup as its Chief Financial Officer and Michael Weeks as its Administrative Coordinator. 
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Additional details include: 
Kat Sukup addition: Serve hired Kat Sukup as its Chief Financial Officer in February 2023. Sukup will oversee and manage the financial and accounting functions of the credit union. With more than 20 years of financial and operational experience, she is a familiar face in the Iowa credit union industry. Prior to Serve, she spent 20 years at First Class Community Credit Union as both its Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. Sukup received her bachelor’s degree in both accounting and finance at the University of Minnesota Crookston. She has her Certified Credit Union Executive (CCUE) designation. 

I am honored to join the Serve team and make a positive impact in the credit union’s financial operations,” Sukup said. “Continuing my work in the credit union space allows me to make a difference in the financial lives of the members we serve.” 

Michael Weeks addition: Michael Weeks joined the Serve team as its Administrative Coordinator. This is a new position for the credit union. In this role, Weeks will provide administrative and accounting assistance to the management team. He will primarily handle payroll processing, wires and reconcilement functions as well as coordinate monthly board/committee meetings. 

“As our credit union continues to grow and evolve, it’s important that type of growth is also reflected in our team,” said Jami Weems, CEO of Serve. “Adding Kat and Michael allows us to help our members’ increasing financial needs and improve the services available to them.” 

Serve Credit Union serves those who serve the community and their families, including public servants like USDA employees, teachers, police officers, first responders like firefighters, correctional officers, EMTs. Read more about Serve and its unique membership at https://www.servecu.org/.  ​

​Glia, the leading provider of Digital Customer Service (DCS), today announced new additions to the Glia Interaction Platform, including an AI voice banking feature and a solution that brings real-time service options to asynchronous secure messages. Announced at Glia’s annual customer event, the enhancements further enable financial institutions to seamlessly and securely interact with customers across phone and digital channels.
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“We’re launching major new capabilities for the Glia Interaction Platform at our first in-person conference this week, focused on redefining how businesses interact with customers," said Dan Michaeli, CEO and Co-Founder of Glia. “These new features are the direct result of feedback from our customer community and our commitment to understand how financial institutions can optimize the efficiency and satisfaction of their customer interactions.”

Voice GVAs
One of the new features is a voice banking solution for the Glia Interaction Platform that extends Glia’s turnkey AI-powered Glia Virtual Assistants (GVAs) to support dial-in phone interactions. This allows financial institutions to offer a single virtual assistant across the call center and digital channels to automate both voice and chat interactions.

Replacing legacy, menu-based IVR and phone banking systems, Glia’s Voice GVAs allow callers to simply interact using natural language, removing the complexities of traditional menu navigation. Voice GVAs deliver uninterrupted 24/7 service, adeptly handling after-hours calls and peak demand, while responding to customer questions and transferring them to live support as needed.

“Glia Virtual Assistants are pre-trained to handle 800+ banking scenarios out of the box to improve resolution times and lower costs," said Justin DiPietro, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Glia. “Our customers experience a 50%+ containment of customer engagement on average with some realizing more than 90%. Typically they also realize an 80% reduction in Average Wait Time and Average Handle Time.”

The AI voice banking solution is available immediately as part of the GVA offering. For more information go to Glia Virtual Assistants

Secure Conversations
Secure Conversations is another major enhancement, enabling financial institutions to connect asynchronous messages from their secure banking portal to real-time service options. This allows users to seamlessly transition  from a secure message to a live representative via Chat, OnScreen Voice or Video.

“Secure messaging has been a digital disconnect for customers, locking them into a discrete, detached ‘email-like’ channel separate from all other service options. Responding to a secure message has often meant waiting 24 to 48 hours for an answer,” said DiPietro. “Glia Secure Conversations bridges the gap, allowing customers to opt for a real-time channel from within the secure message to interact with a self-service assistant or a live representative. By making secure messages part of a seamless interaction, Glia Secure Conversations can boost first-time resolution rates, lower abandonments and drive up conversions.”

Glia Secure Conversations is pre-integrated with digital banking platforms, ensuring that a visitor is authenticated and that an interaction can start from a secure portal message and seamlessly shift to a live channel. Because customers need to log into the digital banking platform to access secure messages, they can safely interact and receive real-time support without additional verification. This delivers a seamless interaction that drives to resolution rather than forcing a customer to wait for a secure message response.

Glia is rolling out Secure Conversations with digital banking platform partners. Contact your digital banking platform provider to learn about eligibility and timing for Glia Secure Conversations.

​North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has once again proclaimed April as Financial Literacy Month. State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) kicked off its efforts by teaming up with CUNA Mutual Group and Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Schools to host a multi-school SECU Reality of Money® event for students at three local high schools. The financial education event provided 200 students with an interactive experience simulating life as an adult in the real world. The event was organized as a community service component for credit union league officials attending a Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Mutual Group Partners’ meeting in Charlotte.
 
“It was a lot of fun to join league leaders from across the country and have an impact on the financial well-being of students in our local Charlotte community,” said Dan Schline, Carolinas Credit Union League president and CEO. “If you work in the Carolinas, you know the great work that State Employees’ Credit Union does each and every day. We appreciate all of SECU’s work in organizing the event, and we were certainly proud to let our league colleagues see the SECU team in action.”
 
“These events provided league officials the opportunity to engage students in conversations that reinforce the importance of education and building solid financial skills that will help shape their future,” said Kelli Holloway, SECU Outreach senior vice president. “The SECU Reality of Money financial simulation is a practical and realistic effort, giving students a better view of the adult working world as it relates to personal finance. Hearing students comment about this being an eye-opening experience makes it so rewarding for all of us.”
 
During April and throughout the year, SECU uses various educational resources to grow awareness around economic education for North Carolinians of all ages. From FAT CAT® activities for young members, to Biz Kid$ curriculum and Real World experiences for middle school students, and Your Financial Future and Reality of Money high school classroom presentations, students throughout North Carolina are learning the importance of sound money management. The Credit Union’s outreach extends beyond the classroom through its Students@Work and Summer Camp Award programs, career fairs, young adult presentations for college students, and consumer education sessions for adults in local communities statewide.

By: Martina Schubert, CTO at Coviance

The banking industry is in the middle of a rapid digital transformation – customers increasingly want to do their banking via apps or online, which has reduced the need for physical branches and placed a premium on effective digital tools. Credit unions are no exception to this trend, and their historic commitment to member-first banking is all the more reason to ensure that their digital platforms are reliable and user-friendly. 

There are several principles credit union tech teams should prioritize as they scale up their digital operations: don’t try to do everything in-house, build teams with strong change management skills, focus on cybersecurity, define what a successful digital transformation looks like, and use data analytics to generate insights on customer behavior and preferences. By observing these principles, credit unions will strengthen their relationships with existing members and expand their customer base. Let’s take a closer look at each one. 

Forge relationships with fintech companies. Many credit unions are community institutions that don’t have large R&D teams or sprawling IT departments. This is why it’s no surprise that credit unions are partnering with fintech companies to offer powerful digital tools while keeping costs under control – or even reducing them. 

The proportion of banks that describe fintech partnerships as important jumped from 49 percent in 2019 to 89 percent in 2021. However, while just a quarter of banks see these partnerships as a strong driver of growth over the next few years, 44 percent of credit unions do. This is a reflection of the fact that relationships with fintechs can reduce costs and expertise requirements, get solutions implemented more quickly, and ease maintenance burdens. Reinventing the wheel isn’t always the best way to leverage technology. 

Build teams capable of driving and managing change. It has never been more critical for credit union employees to be adaptable and willing to learn. According to a PwC survey, 77 percent of employees say they’re ready to “learn new skills or completely retrain” – a healthy attitude at a time when automation and globalization are increasing the demand for skilled work, and an encouraging sign for HR teams in rapidly digitizing industries like banking. 

When credit union leaders build teams with change management in mind, they’ll be able to deploy technology more quickly and productively. They’ll also be capable of adjusting to evolving member needs in real time, addressing problems as they arise, and saving money by leaving cumbersome and error-prone manual processes behind. 

Make cybersecurity a core priority. Trust is at the heart of any credit union’s business model. As the digital transformation picks up momentum, it’s essential for members to know that their sensitive data is safe. A Pew survey found that 79 percent of Americans are concerned about how companies use the data they collect, and credit unions should be particularly attuned to this concern considering the amount of personal financial information they possess and their responsibility for securing account numbers, credentials, and so on. 

There are many ways credit unions can build cybersecurity into their digital operations: by deploying tools such as multi-factor authentication, password managers, and VPNs; consistently updating all apps and software; and providing employees with cybersecurity training. Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 82 percent of breaches involve a human element, which is yet another reminder that digital literacy and training are vital – especially as credit unions continue to oversee a sweeping digital transformation. 

Use data analytics to provide better member experiences. One reason cybersecurity is indispensable for credit unions is the need for robust data analytics. When credit unions collect member data, they need to be transparent about how this is done, what cybersecurity measures are in place, and how members will ultimately benefit. 

For example, 72 percent of banking customers say personalization is “highly important.” Data collection is integral to providing personalized services and experiences, as it allows credit unions to address individual pain points, learn about member preferences, and determine how digital services are being used. Credit union leaders can use this information to offer the specific features members want, customized engagement, positive experiences across touchpoints, and to ensure they’re focusing on the best digital transformation to meet their goals for member experience.

Explore cloud-based services. It would be far too expensive and laborious for most credit unions to develop technology in-house, which is why the interest in working with fintech companies is surging. Cloud computing provides scalability, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility – all critical elements of a successful digital transformation. 

Cloud platforms can facilitate communication and collaboration, standardize processes across the organization (which reduces the likelihood of costly errors), and enable more efficient workflows. Cloud SaaS partnerships lower operational costs, while allowing credit unions to provide members with the digital resources they increasingly expect. 

There has already been a digital revolution in banking: 78 percent of American adults prefer to do their banking on an institution’s website or app, and they want more and more digital features (peer-to-peer transfers, mobile check deposit, etc.). This is why it’s no surprise that “digital transformation” has become a buzzword in the industry. But it should be more than a buzzword – it should be accompanied by a member-first strategy that will provide value through innovation, efficiency, and most importantly, the customer experience. ​

​CUSOs Envisant and Pure IT have partnered to create Cloud+Union, a bundled service offering for small credit unions nationwide to transition away from on-premises hardware and take the leap into the cloud.

Many small credit unions struggle to meet technology, security, and access needs of today's business and regulatory environment. With next-generation network implementation, a cloud-focused software stack, and Pure IT as a Managed Services Partner, Cloud+Union is helping credit unions start their journey to the cloud.

The Cloud+Union product, officially launching May 1, 2023, will have security, compliance, and collaboration features like multi-factor authentication, a new Microsoft implementation, and industry-leading firewalls. As credit union technology progresses into the cloud, additional capabilities and complexity will become available.

Jack Smith, Pure IT CEO, says: "Cloud+Union is a game changer for small credit unions seeking secure and compliant IT services. With its cutting-edge technology and dedicated team, Cloud+Union delivers peace of mind, allowing credit unions to focus on what matters most -- serving their members. This innovative product is a testament to the power of collaboration and technological advancement for the financial industry."

Libby Calderone, Envisant President and COO, adds: With information security a top priority, providing access to modern, cloud-based technology creates a direct line for credit unions to work smarter, not harder. Envisant stands behind credit unions to connect them with tools that propel them toward digital transformation and incredible member service -- all while maintaining the highest security standards. Cloud+Union with Pure IT is a partnership that we're extremely proud of because it is specifically designed to provide that access and ease the transformation for credit unions."

​Trellance, a leading technology partner providing innovative analytics, cloud and talent solutions to credit unions, helped MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) increase CD revenue by over 1000% through the use of Trellance’s Next Best Product AI, one of the 6 AI driven predictive model offered by Trellance.
 
To test the accuracy of Next Best Product AI from Trellance, MSUFCU launched A/B testing on a group of members selected by Next Best Product predictive model versus a group of members selected using MSUFCU’s traditional selection criteria. Testing included sending the two groups the same promotional materials, a mailer and an email campaign, as well as in-app promotions, promoting their Certificate of Deposit (CD) program.
 
The group selected by Next Best Product AI had an average account balance of $90K and opened 160 CDs with a total revenue of $7.4M. The group selected by MSUFCU had an average account balance of $7K and opened a total of 53 CDs with a total revenue of $666K.
 
“The instant ROI from this has been amazing,” said MSUFCU Chief Financial Officer Sara Dolan. “I think running the A/B testing really allowed us to see the value of the Trellance product. We’re making plans to include this sort of predictive modeling in our future marketing efforts now.”
 
“We’re proud to have been a part of MSUFCU’s success,” said Trellance’s Chief Product Officer, Paolo Teotino. “We’re looking to take the guess work out of campaigns with our Predictive Analytics Products – and that’s what happened here, we helped MSUFCU get the right product in front of the right people at the right time.”
 
MSUFCU plans to continue their partnership with Trellance and to incorporate Next Best Product AI together with a few other predictive models offered by Trellance into future campaigns, especially those that have an added expense, such as a mail component. To learn more about MSUFCU and Next Best Product AI, read the full case study, available here.