CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle issued the following statement upon Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announcing she will not seek a leadership position in the next Congress. “We thank Speaker Pelosi for her steadfast support throughout her historic, trailblazing career, especially her work with CUNA, the California Credit Union League, and California credit unions,” Nussle said. “The House advanced dozens of pro-credit union bills under her leadership, many of which have been enacted into law and have helped greatly improve credit unions’ operating environment.” Nussle served in Congress with Pelosi from 1991 to 2007.
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Following its recent announcement of a successful $10 million Series A funding raise, Agent IQ, a provider of digital customer engagement solutions specializing in making financial services more personal again, announced the addition of fintech industry veteran, Michael Lee, as the company’s new chief sales officer, and the promotion of Soren Bested to chief operating officer. A proven executive with more than 20 years of banking and fintech experience, Lee brings a deep understanding of banking, consulting and sales leadership to his new role at Agent IQ. Following his work within the business and commercial banking segments at leading institutions including JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia and Washington Mutual, Lee served as SVP at Kasasa, a leading provider of rewards checking accounts for community banks and credit unions. While at Kasasa, Lee was instrumental in leading the expansion of the company’s sales organization by 250%. At Agent IQ, Lee’s duties as CSO include collaborating with organization leaders to effectively align with and support key business initiatives, as well as scaling the executive sales team to accommodate increased execution and strategy. Bested previously served as Agent IQ’s CRO since 2018 and was influential in evolving and refining the Lynq™ platform to cater to market demand while achieving critical market penetration. A recognized innovator, Bested continues to move the needle in defining digital interactions between customers and bankers, formerly serving as COO for an Umpqua Bank subsidiary, Pivotus Ventures and Monitise Americas. As COO, Bested oversees customer success plus the operational and administrative functions of Agent IQ, while implementing enhanced business strategies that align with both the short- and long-term goals of the company. “Leading financial institutions are recognizing that customers prefer to work with people, and we are seeing a tremendous market opportunity in enabling consumers to engage with their banker in a frictionless manner, made scalable by augmented intelligence,” said Slaven Bilac, CEO & Co-Founder, Agent IQ. “To truly innovate and change an industry for the better requires people who are passionate about driving positive change and who can clearly see the path forward, and that describes the approach that both Michael and Soren bring to Agent IQ and our FI clients. I am excited to have them play a key role in our company’s continued growth.” The Iowa credit union industry is warning Iowans of recent increases in texting scams aimed at stealing personal and financial information. Known as “smishing,” these fraudulent text messages appear to be from a consumer’s financial institution and try to trick them into revealing their account number or other personally identifiable information. According to recent reports from the Internal Revenue Service, thousands of fraudulent domains tied to multiple MMS/SMS/text scams have been reported in 2022. In recent months, smishing attempts have increased exponentially. Smishing campaigns target mobile phone users, and the scam messages often look like they’re coming from a credit union or bank directly. Some scams may ask users to click a link to access their accounts. The sense of urgency, misspelling and need for specific financial information should all be red flags. The scammers pretend that they already know sensitive information about you, and the text may even be spoofed to display the website or phone number of the organization the scammer claims to represent. “This is phishing on an industrial scale, and it is putting Iowans’ financial data at risk,” said Jaimie Miller, Vice President of the Iowa Credit Union League. “Consumers need to remain vigilant with suspicious text messages and report these scams as they occur. If you are uncertain about who is contacting you, get in touch with your credit union or bank directly.” Financial institutions will never ask for personal information, including social security numbers and full account numbers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a helpful guide on how to spot text message scams here. Mahalo Banking, a CUSO that provides online and mobile banking solutions for credit unions, today announced that Ken Kondo, former Vice President of Software Development, has been promoted to Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). This leadership appointment supports the company’s commitment to continuous digital banking innovation. Kondo has an extensive background in financial software development and credit union operations. As CIO, Kondo will now lead a new division dedicated to exploring platform innovation opportunities and implementing modern industry solutions to the Mahalo platform. In addition, Kondo will be attending pertinent industry technology conferences to engage in collaborative discussions with vendors and credit union leaders about adopting new platform features that can improve members’ banking experiences. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to head a division that is solely dedicated to driving Mahalo’s innovation efforts,” said Kondo. “As a developer, it’s common for most platform enhancements to simply become routine due to client requests and new conversions. Within this new division, however, our work will be entirely devoted to thinking outside of the box and implementing creative functionality features that will strategically differentiate our platform and act as true game changers for our credit union clients.” Mahalo’s platform enables credit unions to modernize their digital banking capabilities, improve the customer experience and better protect members from fraud risk. Designed by credit union industry veterans, the platform is built on superior architecture with deep integrations into credit union cores and efficient third-party integrations. The Mahalo platform delivers secure feature sets across all delivery platforms to offer members a unified omni-channel experience. Promoting the technological growth of credit unions, Mahalo strives to develop innovative solutions that effectively meet the needs of credit unions and their members. "Ken has an amazing capability of seeing what something could be and not just accepting what something is. This has allowed him to design and develop numerous innovative solutions throughout his career, and it’s why we are so excited to have him take the role as Chief Innovation Officer,” said Jim Stickley, President and CEO of Mahalo. “We aspire for our platform to not only address feature requests of credit union leaders but also ensure our technology always goes a step further to intuitively meet user needs. Rather than presenting a finished, stagnant platform, with Ken’s guidance, we will continue to provide an inventive, industry-centered solution that is continuously advancing to deliver a very special digital banking experience for credit unions and their members.” Making bold strides to transform how financial services are delivered to credit union members, Curql Collective has added a new Ecosystem Partner to its impressive ranks. Based in West Des Moines, Iowa, LenderClose is the most recent fintech subscriber to add value to Curql’s credit union ecosystem by joining the Collective. With a solution that integrates workflow automation and process intelligence to simplify the home equity lending experience, LenderClose offers Curql Collective credit unions access to a lending platform that empowers lending teams to facilitate faster applications to closings, automate underwriting requirement communications, status reporting, and a broad suite of technology solutions. "LenderClose has its finger on the pulse of the home equity lending market," said Curql Collective CEO & President Nick Evens. "Its technology platform is a great offering for this market, giving Collective credit unions of all sizes access to some amazing tools that will help them stand out, attract members, communicate more effectively and lend more efficiently." The plug-and-play, fully supported platform is proven to increase lending teams’ efficiencies and production output for credit unions. LenderClose’s configurable workflow automation technology, allows credit unions to scale home equity lending, while easing change management, staff training and onboarding, in addition to compliance and cost controls. With over 450 credit unions and banks on the platform, in 2022 LenderClose came in at 564 on the “Inc 5000” as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. “Fintechs are essential to the credit union movement’s endurance in today’s highly competitive marketplace,” said LenderClose CEO Omar Jordan. “Speed and a fluid lending experience is now what members expect. Joining the Curql Collective is an important step to further our shared priority to advance member experience.” Patelco Credit Union, a Bay Area-based credit union dedicated to the financial wellness of its members and communities, is bringing a new investment tool and platform to its members. The credit union is leveraging Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Platform to bring this new automated investing Robo Advisor tool to its members. Patelco’s Robo Advisor delivers automated investing with human help when members need it. It builds, monitors and automatically rebalances a diversified portfolio based on the member’s individual goals. Members can also get started with $5,000, half of what is typically needed, with a full-service financial advisor. “We are always looking for new, innovative ways to serve our members,’ said Carolyn Wilson, Director, Investments - CUSO Financial Services, L.P. (Member FINRA/SIPC) at Patelco Credit Union. “Now more than ever, there are more people interested in investing; however, meeting the investment minimum to work with a full-service financial adviser can be challenging for many people, especially new or younger investors. Our new robo-advisor platform gives members the opportunity to safely and easily engage in investing alongside their other Patelco accounts and financial wellness resources. Robo Advisor is integrated with Patelco Online™, giving our members a single dashboard to view balances, schedule transfers, and get information on all of their accounts.” Patelco’s Robo Advisor can help members invest for retirement, college, vacations, building long-term wealth, or creating a sustainable income stream. To get started, members answer questions about their goals, risk tolerance, and timeline. Based on the member’s answers, Patelco’s Robo Advisor will provide a tailored portfolio from more than 80 variations, including:
Patelco’s Robo Advisor monitors and automatically rebalances investments to help keep portfolios diversified and on track. Rebalancing is important for keeping a member’s intended level of risk consistent as markets fluctuate and asset classes drift too far away from the target portfolio weighting. Portfolios are automatically rebalanced when asset class weightings drift too far from targets. While rebalancing doesn't eliminate volatility, it can help to reduce risk over time. To learn more about Patelco’s Robo Advisor, go to https://www.patelco.org/explore-services/investments/robo-advisor-program Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Senior Economist Dawit Kebede, PhD, issued the following statement in response to the Labor Department’s October Consumer Price Index Report: “The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 7.7% relative to a year ago. This is the lowest increase for the year as prices for used cars, air travel, and medical care declined in October. The increase in core-CPI (prices excluding food and energy) also slowed down from 0.6% in September to 0.3%. CUNA forecasts inflation by year-end will be 7.5%. “Housing price contributed for over half of the 0.4% increase in overall monthly prices. If housing remained flat compared to September, the annualized October inflation would have been lower than 2.4%. There is a lag of up to 18 months between current market price and the CPI for housing. The CPI reflects increases from a few months ago but current market price for housing is cooling down. “Overall, the October inflation report shows signs of prices slowing down. A 7.7% headline inflation is still much higher than the Federal Reserve's target. Hence, the Fed may raise interest rates by 50 basis points in December.” Apiture, a leading provider of digital banking solutions, today announces the launch of Data Engage, a new toolset helping banks and credit unions expand the use of their digital banking platform. Through a partnership with Pendo, the most comprehensive product experience platform, Data Engage provides financial institutions with data-driven insights into how consumers and businesses are using their digital banking solution and offers tools to deliver in-channel guidance and tailored messages to drive engagement. Though digital banking use has grown in recent years, users take advantage of available features to varying degrees. Apiture sought a way to help its bank and credit union clients easily understand user behavior and provide ways to encourage expanded use of platform features. With Data Engage, financial institutions can easily evaluate engagement with the Apiture Digital Banking Platform and can target defined audiences with pop-up messages - such as marketing notices, tips, and tutorials, including video - to educate and drive adoption of specific features. "As financial institutions seek to create stickiness with their brand, it is critical for them to understand how users are interacting with their platform and to have strategies to help users maximize the value of various online banking features," said Chris Babcock, CEO of Apiture. "With Data Engage, our clients can easily evaluate their users' activities and enhance the online experience using no-code, highly intuitive tools that promote the expanded use of digital banking capabilities." "We're thrilled that Apiture chose Pendo to power its Data Engage toolset," said Todd Olson, co-founder and CEO of Pendo. "This partnership enables Apiture's clients to harness data-driven intelligence. It maximizes user engagement with their digital banking solution. And the best part? It delivers a better user experience." The new toolset is the first of four modules to be made available as part of Apiture's comprehensive Data Intelligence solution, which delivers a range of data analytics and benchmarking tools to help attract, retain, and cross-sell digital banking users. The Apiture team will be conducting demos of Data Engage at the upcoming Financial Brand Forum, taking place November 13-16 at the Aria Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas. Visit Apiture at booth number #651. "According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the overall consumer price level climbed by 0.4 percent in the month of October. This was lower than expected and is hopefully an indication that the economy is cooling off. The cost of shelter in October set another record for the highest monthly growth rate in over 30 years at 0.8 percent, but that figure was spurred by a large increase in hotel prices. Housing rental costs decelerated during the month and are likely to begin a precipitous decline over the coming months as new lease costs decline. Used car prices fell at an accelerated rate and for the fourth consecutive month. While new car prices advanced in October, the rate of increase slowed as production improves. Although headline inflation has been slowing for several months, measures of the breadth of price increases had continued to climb. However, median inflation was steady last month and trimmed mean inflation slowed on a year-over-year basis for the first time in nearly two years. The report supports the step down to a 50-basis point hike in December that the FOMC foreshadowed last week, and another report or two similar to this one would present the fodder for an outright halt to rate increases." - NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President or Research Curt Long Ascend Federal Credit Union today announced it has donated $20,945 to the Central Tennessee chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The contribution includes $18,000 from the credit union – to sponsor the 2022 and 2023 fundraising initiative the MORE THAN PINK Walk – and $2,945 donated by Ascend employees. The money will help fund local breast cancer detection and support projects for those with critical needs, with the goal of eliminating barriers to lifesaving services. Ascend employees contributed to the fundraising campaign by participating in a casual dress program during October. Employees donated a minimum of $5 every Friday and Saturday to wear blue jeans and breast cancer awareness T-shirts to work. Including this year’s donation, Ascend employees have raised $19,123 for Susan G. Komen since 2018. “On behalf of everyone at Susan G. Komen, I would like to thank Ascend and its employees for their meaningful donation and commitment to supporting our foundation,” said Joshua Daniel, executive director of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi at Susan G. Komen. “Donors like Ascend are the primary reason why Susan G. Komen can provide critical support to people who are facing financial hardship paying for chemotherapy, pain medication and other services. This donation will help them receive the quality healthcare they deserve so they can live a better life.” “We are honored to continue our 19-year support of Susan G. Komen, an organization that is truly making a difference in people’s lives,” said Caren Gabriel, Ascend president and CEO. “A culture of giving is rooted in our company’s values, and we are proud to help fund Susan G. Komen’s innovative research and treatment initiatives that are saving the lives of women in Middle Tennessee and around the world.” Susan G. Komen, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, is focused on saving lives and creating a world without breast cancer. Since 1982, Susan G. Komen has collectively invested $1.1 billion in lifesaving breast cancer research. In the state of Tennessee, 1,400 people each week seek help and information from Komen and 95 counties in the Tennessee area are served by Susan G. Komen breast cancer services. |
Author: Mike LawsonMarried to a most gorgeous and wonderful wife, raising 5 kiddos (including twins!), enjoy helping others tell their stories, and love surfing SoCal waves. Keep it simple. Archives
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