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10 Startup Survival Tips in the Age of the Platform

Every startup, as well as mature business, needs to learn as much as possible from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, who have set the standards for fast growth and success in today's business world. These companies, designated the "gang of four" by Eric Schmidt last year, are clearly driving a consumer and business revolution on ... 10 Startup Survival Tips in the Age of the Platform:

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Growing Your Credit Union Without Expanding Your FOM

For many firefighter and other credit union primarly serving first responders, growth often feels tied to one big decision: expanding the Field of Membership (FOM). But what if you didn’t have to? What if growth could come from within —by deepening relationships, increasing engagement, and capturing more of the financial lives of the members you already serve? The truth is: it can. But it requires a shift in strategy. Rethinking What “Growth” Really Means Most institutions define growth as adding more members. But for single-sponsor credit unions, especially those serving first responders, a more powerful definition is: Growth = more value per member Many members only use one or two products—often a checking account and maybe an auto loan. Meanwhile, larger banks capture mortgages, credit cards, and investments. The opportunity isn’t just new members. It’s: More products per member Higher balances per relationship Greater share of wallet Your Biggest Advantage: The First Responder Life...
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When Vendors Price for Giants

 Grant Sheehan CCUE | CEO Opinion: When Vendors Price for Giants, They Shrink the Future of Small Credit Unions ! There’s a quiet squeeze happening in the credit union industry, and it’s not coming from regulators or competition from big banks. It’s coming from the very vendors that claim to support the ecosystem. For small credit unions, the problem is increasingly simple and factual: the tools required to compete with digital banking platforms, fraud systems, compliance software, analytics, and payments infrastructure are priced for institutions ten or even 100 times their size. The result is a market where access to essential services is determined not by mission or member need, but by asset size. This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s structurally threatening. Vendors often defend their pricing models as a reflection of complexity or scale. Larger credit unions have more users, more transactions, more integrations, so they pay more, and that seems fair on the surface. But t...
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Credit Union Lending Picks Up in Most Areas

Credit unions were increasing their portfolios in most areas in June, except business lending and new car loans, where portfolios fell for the 24th month in a row after seasonal adjustments, according to a CUNA Mutual Group report released Tuesday. The Madison, Wis., trade group’s Credit Union Trends Report showed new auto loan balances were $141 billion on June 30, falling at a 3.3% seasonally adjusted, annualized rate from May to June, part of the May-through-October peak car-buying season. Credit unions held $252.4 billion in used car loans on June 30, up 1.2% from May without seasonal adjustments. The Trends Report made slight adjustments to CUNA’s Monthly Credit Union Estimates released earlier in the month. In this case, its changes allowed total auto loan balances to show a slight 0.3% un-adjusted May-to-June gain, compared to being flat in the CUNA report. Steve Rick, chief economist for CUNA Mutual Group and the report’s author, said gains were stronger in other areas, includ...
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The FedNow Service will launch in 2023 "Are you ready?"

The FedNow Service is a new instant payment service that the Federal Reserve Banks are developing to enable financial institutions of every size, and in every community across the U.S., to provide safe and efficient instant payment services in real-time, around the clock, every day of the year. Through financial institutions participating in the FedNow Service, businesses and individuals will be able to send and receive instant payments conveniently, and recipients will have full access to funds immediately, giving them greater flexibility to manage their money and make time-sensitive payments. Consistent with the Federal Reserve’s historical role of providing payment services alongside private-sector providers, the FedNow Service will provide choice in the market for clearing and settling instant payments as well as promote resiliency through redundancy. Financial institutions and their service providers will be able to use the service as a springboard to provide innovative instant p...
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Rick Metsger reminded credit unions the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund may be required to increase loss reserves as the values of taxi medallions decline.

A LEXANDRIA, Va. (Dec. 8, 2017)  – National Credit Union Administration Board Member Rick Metsger today reminded credit unions the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund may be required to increase loss reserves as the values of taxi medallions decline. “Prices for New York taxi medallions at two recent public auctions have been considerably lower,” Metsger said. “That, combined with a continued increase in already high delinquency rates on medallion loans, suggests the Share Insurance Fund’s reserves may have to increase in the very near future.” Metsger spoke today to the Oregon Department of Financial Services CEO roundtable in Salem, Oregon. His remarks covered various issues related to credit union regulation and the Share Insurance Fund.  Metsger said the NCUA issued a Letter to Credit Unions in 2010,   warning of concentration risk , and the agency issued a more specific letter on   taxi medallion lending in 2014​ . “We have known, and warned ...
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Facial recognition to secure payments will exceed 1.4 billion globally by 2025

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Credit unions lending rose at a faster pace in most sectors than the small banks last year, according to data released this week by the FDIC and CUNA Mutual Group.

What credit unions lacked in size they made up for in speed compared with community banks and savings institutions in 2017. Credit unions lending rose at a faster pace in most sectors than the small banks last year, according to data released this week by the FDIC and CUNA Mutual Group. CUNA Mutual’s monthly  trends report  showed credit unions held $984.8 billion in total loans at Dec. 31, up 10.7% from a year earlier and a growth rate more than twice as fast as community banks. Credit union assets rose 6.3% to $1.4 trillion due to a 6.3% increase in deposits, a 3% drop in borrowings and a 7.7% increase in capital. With loan balances growing faster than assets, the loan-to-asset ratio ended 2017 at 70.4%, up from 67.5% a year earlier. The fast loan growth also helped loan delinquency rates fall to 0.79% in December, down from 0.83% a year earlier, according to CUNA Mutual. The FDIC’s Quarterly Banking Profile showed loans at the nation’s 5,670 community banks ...
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Don't say NO to your members anymore!

Does the following scenario occur at your credit union? If it does, we have a solution for you! A member comes in into your credit union and wants to know if you will loan them a couple of hundred thousand $$$ to buy a building, or can you loan him some seed money to start a new business or purchase equipment for the company they currently own, and you say,  “the credit union doesn't do those kinds of loans”.  Does this sound familiar? How many times do you and your staff say NO and literally tell a member to  “go down the street or go somewhere else” ?  Well, now, you have another option.   CU First Responders Finance (CUFR) CU First Responders Finance, LLC (CUFR)  is a partnership between the National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions, Inc.   (NCOFCU) , and Biz Lending & Insurance Center, Inc. to provide business lending origination programs to NCOFCU member credit unions. CUFR  will provide you with a turnkey operati...
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Americans are using alternative financing arrangements, such as rent-to-own

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What should your credit union budget for in 2025?

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