Firefighter Credit Union Newsroom

National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions Partners with OMNICOMMANDER .COM for ADA Compliant Website Design and Hosting "OMNICOMMANDER Services" A NCOFCU Business Partner & 2018 Seattle GOLD Sponsor About OMNICOMMANDER OMNICOMMANDER is a veteran owned and operated credit union website design, social media and marketing firm. With a focus on member experience, the company ensures that every touch-point has the exact same user interface. Along with incredible design, OMNICOMMANDER creates sites with built-in mobile responsiveness, SSL encryption while observing ADA guidelines on accessibility for disabled members. For more information, visit OMNICOMMANDER on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram . Firefighter Friendly Founder...

WASHINGTON—For U.S. states ready to legalize gambling, banks hold many of the cards. The Supreme Court recently ruled that states can allow betting on individual sporting events, but gamblers who want to place those wagers using a credit card face a major hurdle: The largest U.S. issuers, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and American Express, don't yet allow their cards to be used for sports gambling, reported Bloomberg. “The stakes are huge. Americans illegally bet an estimated $150 billion on sports games each year, a figure that's enticing for credit-card issuers looking to gin up extra spending by their customers. Still, allowing cardholders to fund their gambling habit with a credit card could create problems for lenders, which are left on the hook if a borrower can't repay,” Bloomberg said. Time to review your policy? Join us in Seattle

Decoration Day, as Memorial Day was originally known, was conceived in May 1868 and was first observed at Arlington National Cemetery to bring together the families of the fallen to help heal the wounds of a war that had threatened to tear our young nation apart. The tradition endures nearly 150 years later at national cemeteries across the country. This Monday, as a nation, we will observe Memorial Day. It is not just for barbecues, shopping, or having the day off from work. It is a day when all Americans should remember and reflect upon those who have fought and died for our country and who now lay in p eace. Join us in Seattle

President Donald Trump today signed the NAFCU-backed Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) into law. Following years of NAFCU advocacy and credit union grassroots efforts, the industry has secured meaningful regulatory relief. "NAFCU and our members again appreciate all House and Senate lawmakers who worked on this bill and pushed it through to final passage – especially [Senate Banking Committee] Chairman [Mike] Crapo and [House Financial Services Committee] Chairman [Jeb] Hensarling," said NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger. "We appreciate President Trump signing the bill, as we can now look towards the future and continue to work with Congress on further regulatory relief measures to ensure robust growth of the credit union industry." After House passage of the bill on Tuesday, Berger sent a letter thanking Trump for his leadership on helping Main Street financial institutions and urging him to sign the bill. In addition,...

See you in Seattle  9 / 19-22, 2018 Managing and maintaining a portfolio of performing loans is a basic challenge for all credit unions.  Marketing and underwriting loans is a major function in all credit unions.  However, getting loans on the books is only 50% of the job.  The other 50% is managing loans over their life in the portfolio.  Credit Migration is a powerful tool that credit union leaders are using for this purpose.  This presentation will provide a clear understanding of what credit migration is, how it works and how it is applied by credit unions to minimize losses, enhance yields, and prepare for CECL implementation. We are pleased to have Dr. Thompson present a general session on the CECL and how it will be applied to credit unions and an afternoon breakout on how to implement CECL in your credit union. Randy C. Thompson , Ph.D. is the CEO and founder of TCT Risk Solutions LLC a CUSO.  He has consulted with Cre...

Introducing STARS, an AML Monitoring Solution for Smaller Financial Institutions With the ever-increasing expectations on financial institutions to monitor transactions and manage alerts, many smaller financial institutions find themselves stranded somewhere between nerve-wracking reliance on limited reporting options from their core systems and a prohibitively large investment in an anti-money-laundering monitoring system that, in addition to the up-front costs, can create significant time demands on resources that are already stretched thin. What’s a small financial institution to do? Introducing STARS from AdvisX. Our Streamlined Transactional Analytics and Review Solution is the right-sized monitoring solution for smaller financial institutions. STARS offers a low-cost way to monitor transactions, generate alerts, and manage those alerts from identification to resolution. STARS is implemented in three phases: Phase I: Discovery Phase II: Implementation Phase III: O...

Banks and other covered financial institutions must comply with this rule beginning on May 11, 2018. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) today issued new examination procedures on the final rule, “Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions,” issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on May 11, 2016. These examination procedures apply to banks, savings and loan associations, savings associations, credit unions, and branches, agencies, and representative offices of foreign banks. The new examination procedures replace those in the current “Customer Due Diligence — Overview and Examination Procedures” section of the FFIEC’s  Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual . In addition, a new overview and examination procedures were developed for the beneficial ownership requirements for legal entity customers. The FFIEC member agencies created these procedures in close collaboration with FinC...

By Corporate One Federal Credit Union Once largely thought of as taboo, the use of external funding is now widely accepted throughout the credit union industry. In fact, the NCUA has required all credit unions to seek multiple liquidity sources and document those sources in their liquidity policy. As the acceptance of external funding has improved, credit unions are increasingly sourcing funds from many channels, including the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the corporate credit union network, and several non-member deposit channels, such as public fund deposits. Yes, public fund deposits are being increasingly sourced to fund credit union assets. Increasing Growth, Benefits, And Uses Total member and non-member government deposits totaled $5.4 billion at year-end 2017. This is an increase of 27% since 2015. While this amount pales in comparison to total deposits and other liabilities, how important are these deposits to the nearly 500 credit unions who report them?...

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     NCOFCU 2018 Conference Registration NCOFCU 2018 Conference Registration Now Open Early Bird Ends 7/1/18 September 19-22, 2018  Seattle, WA Online Registration          Mail-in Registration “Great things happen when credit unions serving firefighters and first responders come together. Our Face-to-face interaction is the platform where collaboration begins, relationships are forged, and ideas are generated." The key aspects of this meeting will focus on the collaborative discussions among the attendees from the credit union community. Participants will have the opportunity to sit in on breakout sessions covering a variety of subjects of key interest to credit unions.You'll walk away with: Tools and techniques from credit union leaders Fresh and innovative business strategies – from growing your products to being ready for the next wave of change Wh...

On Wednesday, the U.S. central bank released its  latest policy statement,  maintaining a target benchmark interest rate range of 1.5%-1.75%. Wall Street had expected the Fed would make no changes to its interest rate policy on Wednesday after  raising rates in March  for the sixth time since the financial crisis. Wednesday’s announcement was not accompanied by a press conference with Fed chair Jay Powell nor were updated economic forecasts from the Fed released. In its statement, the Fed said, “Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that the labor market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has been rising at a moderate rate. Job gains have been strong, on average, in recent months, and the unemployment rate has stayed low.” The biggest development in the statement, however, was a tweak in the Fed’s language with respect to inflation. “On a 12-month basis, both overall inflation and inf...

WASHINGTON–CUNA is cautioning federal credit unions to pay attention to what a court decision on field of membership means as they look to add new members. As CUToday.info reported here, NCUA is considering an appeal to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s ruling that vacated two provisions of the agency’s field of membership rule. What that means, reminded CUNA CEO Jim Nussle in a letter to credit unions, is that while NCUA filed a notice with the court last week setting forth its plan to comply with the ruling, it will not grant new community charters to federal charters based on the expanded definition of "rural district" and "combined statistical area" going forward. Credit unions will not be required to de-list members who joined prior to April 4. “The NCUA's notice also observes that some of the court's ruling could be overturned in an appeal,” wrote Nussle. “CUNA strongly supports NCUA's authority to issue the r...