Firefighter Credit Union Newsroom

May 30, 2023 NCUA’s proposed field of membership changes would reduce unnecessary burdens and increase efficiency in the FOM application process, CUNA wrote to the agency Tuesday. NCUA proposed the changes at its February meeting, with the intention of streamlining access to credit unions. “Today, the archaic FOM restrictions to which credit unions are subject are antithetical to the goal of financial inclusion and economic equity, and they impede credit unions more fully fulfilling their statutory mission to promote thrift and provide access to credit for provident purposes,” the letter reads. “We consistently urge Congress to relax or eliminate these restrictions. This proposed rule represents an important step toward a more inclusive approach to credit union membership. CUNA strongly supports this proposed rule, as the changes contemplated would help credit unions deliver necessary financial services to more Americans.” Speci...

   www. NCOFCU .org   "By Firefighters for First Responders" On Memorial Day we remember and honor those w...

We are excited to announce an incredible presentation by Stanton Furness at our upcoming conference in Clearwater Beach, FL! You won't want to miss this opportunity to learn and connect with industry professionals. Stay tuned for more details on the 2023 Speakers & Schedule. We look forward to seeing you there!  2023 Speakers & Schedule Medicare for Your Members We are a CUSO and our Medicare program has been in operation since 2013 serving credit union members throughout the U.S. We do Medicare the credit union way and concentrate our efforts on member education and improving your relationship with senior members. We typically fully manage the program for the credit union but we also have options for you or your Insurance Agency to manage the program. “We are so pleased with the MedicareCUSO solution for our  members. It really helps us connect with senior members and enables us  to provide a critical service they need help with each year.”  Todd Johnson...

To avoid repricing deposits at higher rates, banks, and credit unions have attempted to simultaneously use "relationship pricing" and "new money only" offers to manage their book of funding. Fear of funding costs rising may ultimately result in much higher funding costs, and lost profits and franchise value, all while alienating the people who've banked with them for years.  There’s a lot of irony in banking institutions’ deposit strategy right now. Some are using what one banker called a “delay and decay” approach. The idea is to hold out on raising rates for current account holders, allowing those who want a higher rate to decay while hoping the overall volume of the departing deposits will be slight.  Bank and credit union executives say they want to develop deep and broad relationships with account holders. They also proclaim loyalty to depositors who use them as their primary institution. Yet, many offer their highest rates in “new money only” ...

Hood’s term on the NCUA Board will expire in August.  NCUA Board Member Rodney Hood appeared via live stream with Brad Barnes, Air Academy Credit Union, and Amy McGraw, Tropical Financial Credit Union. The regulator lauds strong membership, asset, and loan growth. Despite recent headwinds, including high-profile bank failures, the credit union movement is still safe and sound, says Rodney Hood, NCUA board member, and immediate past chairman. “We’re not seeing the contagion like at other financial institutions,” says Hood, who addressed the 2023 CUNA Finance Council Conference Monday via live stream. The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) crisis was one of confidence, he says. Ninety percent of SVB’s deposits were uninsured. In comparison, more than 91% of credit union deposits are insured. “We don’t have those entanglements,” Hood says. “That bodes well for our future.”  He lauded America’s 4,800 credit unions for growing membership to 135 million, assets to $2.2 trill...

Keynote Speaker in Clearwater Beach, FL., Curt Long Chief Economist and Vice President of Research for NAFCU WASHINGTON—The Fed chairman and other Fed leaders are sending some signals that after a year-plus of ongoing rate hikes aimed at cutting inflation, they are prepared to pause. Curt Long The insights were shared by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams during a research conference. “Both Chair Powell’s remarks and the new research from the New York Fed show two distinct paths to the same destination: a pause in rate hikes,” said NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long. “Some Fede...

Credit unions must seek leaders who match the institution’s culture and consider candidates with a broad array of talents. By Elisa Matthews | May 19, 2023  Photo: fizkes/Shutterstock With a low unemployment rate of 3.5% as of March 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. job market is showing signs of improvement. This figure can be deceiving, however, as the overall labor force participation rate is also low, which is reflective of many things – from a recovering economy and its pandemic-induced conditions to an aging population. Therefore, it’s best to remain agile and opportunistic toward reported conditions as they relate to your industry and community. As many in the credit union space are aware, the industry is experiencing a generational shift, characterized by ongoing consolidation trends that have resulted in an overall industry reduction over the past decade. According to Callahan & Associates’ Q4 report, total c...

MADISON, Wis.–One of the most iconic names in credit unions and credit union history in the U.S. will officially change today when CUNA Mutual Group begins operating under the TruStage brand across the enterprise. All enterprise, business-to-business and consumer brands are now unified under the single brand name of TruStage, which the company has been using for some of its products for a number of years. The new brand is being introduced at the same time approximately 450 employees represented by Office & Professional Employees Local 39 have gone on strike. It is the first strike in the company and the union's history. As CUToday.info has been reporting, the company and the union have been at an impasse since February of 2022, when t...

The NCUA’s final rule goes into effect on Sept. 1. By Matthew G. White and Alexander F. Koskey | Image: Shutterstock The NCUA has approved new cyber incident reporting  requirements  for credit unions. Under the final rule, federally insured credit unions will be required to notify the NCUA of a “reportable cyber incident” within 72 hours of such an event. The NCUA’s final rule follows the 36-hour notification requirement implemented for banking organizations last year. While the final rule doubles the reporting time for credit unions, it also could require credit unions to notify the NCUA of a significantly broader set of incidents than required for banking organizations. The final rule continues the trend of regulators increasing their focus on the cybersecurity safeguards among financial institutions and, in particular, of requiring faster notifications when incidents occur. The final rule will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2023. Here, we’ll ...

ARLINGTON, Va.—Total retail sales increased 0.4% in April, following 0.7% declines in each of the prior two months. Curt Long "Retail sales rebounded in April, which continues a trend of slow, choppy growth,” said NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long. “April's retail sales report does not move the needle on the outlook for the economy, which is slowing but still showing positive trends in most respects. The debt ceiling impasse remains the biggest recessionary threat by far.” Sales within the control group – which excludes the auto, gas, and building material categories, and is the basis of the Commerce Department's es...

SEATTLE—Credit unions and other card issuers have even more to be worried about when it comes to competing with Amazon’s offers, as the company has rebranded its credit cards and upgraded benefits, according to a new report. The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card and Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card are now  Prime Visa and Amazon Visa, respectively. The new Prime Visa has a fresh, new design and offers higher cash back on purchases and trips planned through Chase Travel, along with improved cash back on other purchases, according to CNBC. Prime Visa’s cash-back rates include: 5% back at Amazon and Whole Foods Market 5% back on purchases made through Chase Travel (new) 2% back on local transit and commuting, including rideshare ...

WASHINGTON—The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has rescinded the upfront fees based on borrowers’ debt-to-income (DTI) ratios acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The FHFA announced in January a new upfront fee for certain borrowers with a DTI above 40%, followed by an announcement in March it would delay implementation. That proposal received significant pushback and also led to some confusion. According to the FHFA, it received feedback from mortgage and other industry participants on challenges implementing the DTI ratio-based fee, CUNA reported. “To continue this valuable dialogue, FHFA will provide additional transparency on the process for setting the Enterprises' single-family guarantee fees and will request public input on...

Once upon a time, there was a Credit Union named XYZ. The credit union was started with the aim of providing affordable and accessible financial services to the employees of XYZ. Over the years, XYZ had built a strong reputation as a reliable financial institution that offered low-interest loans and attractive deposit rates to its members. However, as the competition increased in the local market, XYZ faced pressure to keep up with the local rates offered by other financial institutions. In order to attract more deposits, they started offering higher deposit rates than what they could afford. They ignored their Asset Liability Management (ALM) and continued to chase deposits, hoping to improve their bottom line. As a result, XYZ started to experience a decrease in profitability. The higher deposit rates paid to the members were not being offset by the returns on their loan portfolios. They were losing money on the interest rate spread, which is the difference between the interest they ...

Economist says credit unions are providing an increasingly important role of bolstering “resilience” in the nation’s financial system. By Jim DuPlessis | May 12, 2023 at 12:19 PM Source: Shutterstock Some regional bank stocks have plummeted in the last two months amid fears of deposit runs and short-selling of their stocks – despite many of those banks releasing data showing their deposits are holding. The trend led the American Bankers Association last week to call on the Securities & Exchange Commission to investigate and take “appropriate enforcement actions against market manipulation and other abusive short selling practices.” Curt Long In an interview with CU Times Monday, NAFCU Chief Economist Curt Long said the turbulence shows credit unions fulfill an increasingly significant role as a stabilizing force among financial institutions. “It highlights the value credit unions play in terms of adding some resilience to the large...

MADISON, Wis.–A new analysis from CUNA Mutual’s chief economist is offering some insights into what is taking place in the savings market and driving consumer behavior. Writing in CUNA Mutual’s newest Trends Report, Chief Economist Steve Rick noted the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank was due to a liquidity crisis as depositors set off an old-fashioned bank run and withdrew their deposits. As a result, many small- and medium-sized regional banks have reported a loss of deposits, as some depositors have moved deposits to larger “too big to fail” banks. “Credit unions are not immune to this trend,” wrote Rick. “During the first two months of 2023, credit union checking balances declined 2.4%, regular share balances fell 1.1% and money marke...

FALLS CHURCH, Va.– Healthcare Systems Federal Credit Union has renewed its ATM management relationship with  Dolphin Debit . HSFCU  serves healthcare professionals in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and part of Maryland. It recently merged with another similar credit union and now has a fleet of 22 ATMs, all located in key hospital sites in the region. According to the credit union, five years ago it become dissatisfied with its previous ATM management provider and opted for Dolphin Debit. “We liked the honesty and openness we saw in Dolphin. It was refreshing,” said President Bill Hawkins. “I know it can sound like a cliché, but we really do feel that Dolphin Debit is a partner with us. Anytime we have ever had issues, t...

Posted: by Mark Stockley https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog     OK, it’s time for me to keep a promise. Back in October 2022, I wrote an article called Why (almost) everything we told you about passwords was wrong . The article summarizes how a lot of what you’ve been told about passwords over the years was either wrong (change your passwords as often as your underwear), misguided (choose long, complicated passwords), or counterproductive (don’t reuse passwords). Most damningly of all, the vast effort involved in dispensing this advice over decades has generated little discernible improvement in people’s password choices. If it hasn’t quite been a wasted effort, it has certainly represented a galactically inefficient use of resources. We know that this advice isn’t what it’s cracked up to be thanks to intrepid researchers, such as the folks Microsoft Research, who made it their busin...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.—The recent trend of increasing used vehicle values shifted into reverse in April, Black Book reported. The company’s Used Vehicle Retention Index for April decreased -0.1% (0.2 points) to 175.6 from March 2023, which is 5.3% below where it was at the same time in 2022 and 53% above March 2020, pre-pandemic. The reversal comes after used vehicle values began increasing again early this year, following a few months of declines. “Wholesale prices for the two-six-year-old vehicle segments that comprise Black Book’s Used Vehicle Retention Index increased through April, but at a rate lower than what we would see during a typical pre-pandemic Spring Market,” said Alex Yurchenko, chief data science officer at Black Book. “We saw a substantial slowdown in price increases during the second half of April as concerns about demand increased. What Company is ‘Starting to See’ “Wholesale prices in most compact to full-size mainstream segments underperformed last month, but prices o...

    I spent an hour in the credit union with my dad as he had to transfer some money. Finally, I couldn't resist & asked, "Dad, why don't we activate your Internet Banking while we are here?" "Why would I do that?" he asked.      "Well, then you won't have to spend an hour here for things like getting cash or a transfer. You can now even do your shopping online. Everything will be so easy!" I was so excited about initiating him into the world of Net banking.      "If I do that, I won't have to leave the house," he said.      "Yes, yes!" I said. I told him how even groceries can be delivered to your door and how Amazon delivers almost everything else!      His answer left me tongue-tied. He said, "Since I entered this bank today, I have met four of my friends. I have chatted briefly with the staff, who know me well. You know I am alone. This is the company that I need. I like to get ready and come to t...