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Not Your Mother’s Credit Union

“Stablecoins aren’t a speculative play. They’re the next evolution of payments — and a chance for credit unions to lead, not lag. It starts with connecting members to DLT rails - the digital wallet. Without that, nothing else can happen. It’s just a new payment rail - embrace it or lose the relationship. It’s that simple.” While ‘ stablecoins ’ were the prevailing buzzword across Money20/20 this year, the credit union industry had a significant presence. Small financial institutions have staked a place in the future of payments. Credit unions  received a significant boost this summer with the enactment of the stablecoin bill into law. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act authorizes subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions, such as credit union service organizations, to become issuers. Not Your Mother’s Credit Union A Money20/20  fireside chat  with the regulator for credit unions that I moderated focused on the rulemaking task a...
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Fed cuts interest rates for the second time this year

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered interest rates for the second time this year in a continued bid to prevent unemployment from surging. Fed officials voted for another quarter-point rate cut, lowering their benchmark lending rate to a range between 3.75% and 4%, the lowest in three years. It is the first time since the Fed’s rate-setting committee was established in the 1930s that officials have set monetary policy while lacking an entire month of crucial government employment data due to a government shutdown. ____________________________________ Check out NCOFCU's additional features: First Responder Credit Union Academy Podcasts YouTube Mini's Blog Job Board

Zelle Says It Will Allow Users to Make International Payments Using Stablecoins

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz .–   Zelle  has announced plans to allow users to start making international payments using stablecoins. The move by Early Warning Services, which operates the P2P payments network Zelle and which is owned by a consortium of large banks, comes in the wake of the passage of the GENIUS Act, which is designed to usher stablecoins into the regulated financial system. Stablecoins are a digital currency that is pegged to a fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar. As the CU Daily reported  here , credit unions were strongly urged during an event last week to not just start paying attention to stablecoins but to begin taking action as interchange income is threatened. Similarly, analysts said the move by Zelle to help users move money across borders is a defensive move in response to what is expected to be the growing use of stablecoins by consumers and businesses. Early Warning Services did not indicate how it would work or when it would launch, according to sever...

How Stablecoins Could Prove to Be Anything But Stable for CUs That Don’t Get Moving

LOST PINES, Texas–With the GENIUS Act enacted and the countdown on for NCUA and regulators to get rules in place for stablecoins, credit unions were told it’s “go time” to begin preparing for a new technology that could “eat the lunch” of interchange. The cautionary words came from  Dr. Lamont Black , an associate professor at the Driehaus College of Business at DePaul University, where among other things he teaches a graduate course on cryptocurrency, and who is also a fellow in Filene’s Credit Union of the Future Center of Excellence, and who s well-known to many in credit unions for his work and insights.  After several years of speaking to credit unions on crypto, he told  Catalyst Corporate’s  Strategic Summit meeting he has pivoted now due to the rapid change taking place, and in addition to talking about AI (see separate reporting in the CU Daily), he has a warning for CUs when it comes to another emerging technology. Eating the Lunch of Payments “I believe st...

Sunday Reading - What is the Erie Canal?

  Gateway to the West     What is the Erie Canal? The Erie Canal is a 363-mile waterway in New York connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard, from the Hudson River at Albany to Lake Erie at Buffalo ( see map ). Initiated in 1817 for $7M (nearly $200M today), the canal was America’s first major infrastructure project and revolutionized trade and commerce in the United States. The project relied on self-taught amateurs —including teachers, judges, and surveyors. The workers, nearly 50,000, dug the entire canal with hand tools, picks, and gunpowder (dynamite had not yet been invented). The original Erie Canal had 83 locks, each designed to be...

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Powell Rejects Any Plan for Fed to Intervene in Secondary Market to Bring Down Rates

  Frank Diekmann October 20, 2025 2:22 am No Comments PHILADELPHIA–Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there are no plans for the central bank to directly intervene in secondary mortgage markets in an attempt to help bring down mortgage rates, an idea some have proposed as a means of addressing the affordability crisis In housing. Jerome Powell Speaking at the  National Association for Business Economics  conference in Philadelphia, Powell spoke to the Fed’s progress with “quantitative tightening,” that is, its work to reduce the more than $6 trillion of securities it holds on its  balance sheet . Read more about the Balance Sheet HERE Those holdings include approximately $2 trillion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which are bundles of home loans that are packaged together and sold to investors, usually by middlemen  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , noted Realtor.com. Rolling Off Balance Sheet As the report noted, the Fed dramatically increased M...