MADISON, Wis. (5/22/13)--The CUNA Leadership Institute, Nov. 3-8 in San Diego, will challenge attendees to rethink what it takes to oversee an organization while helping inspire personal leadership, the Credit Union National Association said. 
 
The new CUNA Leadership Institute will expose attendees to innovative approaches to leadership development through a curriculum specific to the needs and challenges of credit union leaders.
 
"It's one thing to be told how other business leaders have found success in their roles, but this institute is going to ask more of participants than taking notes and soaking up facts and ideas," stated Kevin Smith, CUNA director of volunteer education. "We'll challenge attendees to discover and develop new approaches to leadership, utilizing their individual strengths and personalities to cultivate innovation and fresh ideas at their credit unions."
 
Sessions will be led by thought leaders from within and outside the credit union movement. The institute curriculum will involve team-building events and after-dark challenge sessions.
 
Highlights of this first CUNA Leadership Institute include:

• Calculated strategic decision-making;
• Discerning worthwhile data amidst the clutter;
• Scenario planning and management-team preparedness;
• Disruptive thinking and innovation; and
• Attracting, harnessing and developing a talented staff.

To register for the CUNA Leadership Institute, use the link.

CARY, N.C.  (5/21/13)--Using predictive models built with software from business analytics provider SAS, CUNA Mutual Group, through its TruStage Insurance Agency, has revamped its customer contact strategy to provide more relevant, timely offers to credit union members.
 
CUNA Mutual and TruStage have achieved better customer satisfaction, increased revenue and reduced cost, SAS said.
 
Since 2006, CUNA Mutual has mined its databases with SAS to create internal reports. Now, using SAS Enterprise Guide as its primary predictive modeling tool, the insurer is embracing more advanced uses of the software.
 
"By leveraging advanced regression techniques, we successfully developed new models to help us determine a better strategy for targeting consumer prospects," said Simon Gao, CUNA Mutual vice president of consumer analytics. "Our results have been strong, both contributing to our organization's bottom line and enabling us to most efficiently reach the credit union members who most need the protection our products provide."
 
CUNA Mutual, through TruStage, uses SAS for other projects, such as developing forecasting models and automating scoring to identify the best prospects to target as most suited to cross selling opportunities. In addition, the team is visualizing data better with JMP desktop statistical discovery software from SAS.

MADISON, Wis. (5/20/13)--Several webinars with topics relevant to credit unions are scheduled for the next two weeks by various groups.
 
Among them:

• The National Federation for Community Development Credit Unions will host a free webinar, "Doing Well by Doing Good--Growth and Low Income Credit Unions," from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT Tuesday.

• The Credit Union National Association is conducting a free webinar on the new "Don't Tax My Credit Union" campaign at 2 p.m. CT Wednesday.  The webinar will feature a legislative briefing on the tax situation facing credit unions, and information on the tools CUNA and state leagues are providing to help credit unions join the tax status fight. (See related News Now story, CUNA Tax Advocacy Webinar is Wednesday.)

• The Members Group, First Data and RAZR Marketing will host a free webinar, "Relationship Loyalty in a Social Media World," for financial institutions on at 1 p.m. CT Thursday. The hour-long event will share insight on changing consumer expectations and how cultural developments drive new innovations in financial institution loyalty programs.

• J. R. Bruno and Associates, a consulting firm to Small Business Administration (SBA) and member business lenders, will conduct a webinar on the advantages of SBA and member business lending on at 11 a.m. CT Thursday.

• The federation will host a free webinar, "Effective Loan Management," from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. CT on May 28.

SAN FRANCISCO (5/17/13)--Credit Union Magazine continues its coverage of FinovateSpring 2013, a two-day showcase of the innovations in financial and banking technology.
 

FinovateSpring 2013, held in San Francisco Tuesday and Wednesday, showcased 63 innovative financial services products, which were demonstrated to conference attendees. Credit Union Magazine Editor-in-Chief Steve Rodgers provided coverage of the conference. (Photo provided by CUNA)

Credit Union Magazine Editor-in-Chief Steve Rodgers attended the conference, watching 63 companies showcase the latest products in financial services. At the end of the event, participants voted on the Best Show presenters, who included:

• BehavioSec, for its new security layer based on user typing/swiping patterns;

• BillGuard, card charge dispute platform, BillGuard FI;

• Dwolla, FISync service to enable banks to originate real-time payments;

• iQuantifi, new financial planning and advice tools;

• MoneyDesktop, personal financial management platform and integrated "deals";

• Personal Capital, iPhone app and interbank funds transfer; and

• SoMoLend, person-to-person lending platform.

For further coverage of FinovateSpring 2013, use the link.

ONTARIO, Calif. (5/17/13)--The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues have launched PowerComment, an interactive online tool designed to help credit unions in the two states more efficiently express their compliance concerns to regulators.
 
"We want to encourage credit unions to comment on proposed rules, and make it easy for them to do so, in an effort to minimize the impact of final regulations," said Sharon Lindeman, the leagues' vice president of regulatory advocacy. "When we spend the time up front and comment on proposals, we can help shape the rules and try to stop overly burdensome directives later."
 
PowerComment.org will allow credit unions to:

• Find up-to-date and easily digestible information on proposed rules, including a summary of pending regulations and potential financial, operational and member service impacts;

• Participate in discussions to increase their understanding of proposed regulatory rules; and

• Write comment letters to regulators and immediately submit them.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (5/16/13)--Minnesota Item Processing Corp. has formed a partnership with CUsource, a Montana-based credit union service organization (CUSO), to combine deposit-item volume and help control cost for credit unions.
 
"MnIPC has consistently provided excellent member service and innovation, which has led to the evolution of the organization and made it the quality client partner it is today," said MnIPC Vice President Michelle Carlson, noting the company will work with CUsource on its credit union deposits. "This cooperation between entities within the credit union system is a mutual benefit for all parties involved."
 
CUsource is a credit union-owned CUSO headquartered in Great Falls, Mont. It provides data processing, draft processing, real estate, print and mail and security services to credit unions in Montana, Kansas, Washington and Wyoming.
 
MnIPC provides item processing solutions, including image capture, Check 21 services, remote deposit capture, mobile deposits and online image archiving.

SAN FRANCISO (5/16/13)--Credit Union Magazine Editor-in-Chief Steve Rodgers is onsite in San Francisco this week providing coverage of FinovateSpring 2013, a two-day showcase of the best innovations in financial and banking technology.
 

FinovateSpring 2013 was held in San Francisco Tuesday and Wednesday. Over the course of two days, 72 presentations showcased the latest, most innovative products in financial services  and the 1,000 attendees voted on the "Best of Show."

Use the link to view Credit Union Magazine's coverage.
 
Finovate conferences are demo-only with companies receiving just seven minutes on stage to demo their latest innovations to the audience.
 
Among the presenters at FinnovateSpring 2013 Tuesday was MoneyDesktop, a provider of online banking-based personal financial management solutions.
 
MoneyDesktop introduced Insight and Target, data-driven analytics tools that aggregate information from MoneyDesktop's personal financial management (PFM) platform to help financial institutions better understand account holders' banking relationships and create focused marketing strategies to specific users.
 
Insight leverages aggregated PFM user data to help financial institutions gain a deeper view into their account holders' spending habits.
 

MoneyDesktop's Matt West, vice president of sales, and Ryan Caldwell, CEO, unveil a back-end data-analytics and marketing platform to go with MoneyDesktop's personal financial management offering. (Photos provided by CUNA)

Target, which builds on Insight, turns data visualization into action and helps financial institutions to offer relevant marketing content and products to account holders in real time.
 
Other products presented Tuesday included:

• Leaf, a mobile payments platform for small-business owners. The second-generation of Leaf lets small business owners manage their inventories and budgets;

• Moven, a mobile banking product featuring "Spend, Save, and Live" tools to help consumers manage and improve their financial health;

• Venmo Touch, which eliminates the need for consumers to constantly retype their credit card information when making purchases on their mobile devices;

• SCard-GO, a mobile app that allows consumers to reduce the number of plastic cards they carry in their wallets to one secure card; an

• Expensify, an invoicing program that lets bills brand their invoices. Customers can pay their bill through Expensify with direct deposit or PayPal.