LAS VEGAS–It’s time to put the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs into some perspective—or at least in the context of credit unions and generative AI and data.
During Mitchell Stankovic’s Underground Collision meeting, which was themed “Grimm Fairy Tales or Happily Ever After,” a panel from across credit unions examined the question of the “Big Bad Wolf” that noted “big data and big resources are in play, but is our idea of ‘Big Collaboration’ a think of the past? Is unity no longer a strength?”
Taking a crack at offering their views on that question were a panel that included Amber Harsin, president and CEO of Prodigy; Brian Hamilton, president of Origence Lending Services; Jay Mossman, president/CEO with Akuvo; Denise Wymore, marketing manager with ZestAI, and Anshul Verma, who heads global partnerships with Mambu.
From left: Anshul Verma, Denise Wymore, Jay Mossman, Brian Hamilton and Amber Harsin.
Here is what each had to say:
Harsin: (Harsin noted she posed a question to AI itself) “When is the last time credit unions were acknowledged for collaboration and change?”)
AI said in 1975 we were known for creating the shared branch network. In 1981, California credit unions and the league created Co-op. Then AI skips ahead 18 years and talks about the Credit Union Membership Access Act. And since then, nothing.
I would say that is not necessarily true, but that tells me we have either done a terrible job of getting out the word around collaboration, or that collaboration isn’t occurring.
Now, we are in this new fast-paced technology market, and my question to the group is, we have access to more than we ever had before. What does that do for big collaboration? Made it unnecessary? Is unity no longer a CU strength? Have we pivoted?
Hamilton: The more access we have to big data, the faster we can process data, the more data we can grab, the more necessary collaboration becomes.
I have worked with and for people who believe we can build everything ourselves, and that is not possible. As we look at something we talk a lot about, top of funnel, in all of those cases credit unions have to be top of funnel. But understand this: it does not matter how big you are as a credit union or think you are with resources, you cannot win at a national level in those spaces. That is just the case.
If we want to compete in the new markets and digital and retail and finance, there is no more PFI--it’s your phone. It has to be simple and fast.
We need big data to get there collectively. If there is any industry that works well together and generally believes that all ships rise, it’s the credit union space.
Mossman: I’ve always believed in big data. In a previous job, we realized we had 80-million members’ data, but we couldn’t leverage it because it was sitting on servers at your credit unions. In my next job, Akuvo, I thought, what if we could do the same thing but all of the information is in the cloud and it’s constantly being refreshed? And then we could feed that into people like ZestAI.
The big banks have 50, 80, 100 million account-holders. We can’t compete (as individual CUs).
I also think we have a tremendous opportunity when we start to share that kind of platform to do things we haven’t even thought of. We have tremendous capabilities at our fingertips and we are just not using it. (Mossman cited bankruptcy and auto repossessions as two examples.)
Wymore: Two years ago in Las Vegas, we rolled out the Credit Union De Novo Collective to start and save credit unions. I have been meeting with a lot of people who have tried and failed, tried and failed, and a few who succeeded.
There are a lot of problems for small credit unions and big data isn’t one of them. It’s little data. They are held hostage by their data processors. The number-one reason for mergers is ‘more products and services.’ We can fix that with the CUSO model. The model of sharing back office services can save small credit unions today.
I found 10 (small credit unions in one city on the same DP platform). I went to the league president and he said to me the credit unions on this list are too small to help. So, when we talk about collaboration, we’ve got some work to do.
Verma: Let’s put the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs in this context. The Big Bad Wolf is definitely at the doorstep. It’s not a single entity. First are the banks with big budgets and a broader range of products that make it hard to attract and retain members. The second is fintech, which forces credit unions to keep up with emerging technologies. Third, as Gen Z’s move into the mainstream demographics, the needs of the financial landscape will change.
There is also cybersecurity and more, all of which are the Big, Bad wolf. This is the grim part. Are we ready? Are our houses made of straws and sticks, or are we ready to fortify with bricks?
Easy & Difficult Answers
The easy answer is credit unions should focus on innovation. The execution is where the challenge is. That’s where the power of collective investment comes into the picture. It’s not easy for a small or midsize credit union to make that kind of investment. We need to take that step forward.
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