By Frank J. Diekmann
It seems only fitting that not even Plastic Man could get his arms around all the issues in plastic and, increasingly, no plastic.
It really requires more of a team, if not everyone in credit unions. And even when you think you’ve got your arms around the situation, along comes some other development you’re supposed to stretch for.
And that’s just payments. There’s also blockchain and EMV and more. I had a chance to sit down recently with Chuck Fagen, CEO at PSCU, during the company’s Knockout Competition in St. Petersburg, Fla., to discuss some of those issues. Here’s a look at some at what he had to say:
On Keeping Up With Speed of Change in Payments
“I don’t know that anyone can say they have their arms around everything in payments. But we try to do so in a number of ways. We work with Mastercard and Visa, and our own people interpret what all the information means and explain that to our workforce, especially to our credit union-facing people. Many credit unions have people wearing multiple hats, with part of that being payments, and they learn from us. We have been offering information and telling them what to do.”
On Blockchain
“We have been on the front end of the CULedger (the credit union blockchain initiative that has numerous participants). I don’t know that blockchain gets down to the transactional level, but what you can see is a path to the identity aspect. It allows you to identity cardholders in a more serious manner.”
On EMV
“In our case we are very far down the path in both credit and debit. There has been a significant drop off in fraud, a couple of points, from 9% to 7%. We’re seeing the reduction on the transactional side. But the speed of transactions remains a concern. There is an upgrade that is addressing that. We are seeing the shift to card-not-present fraud, as has been the case in other countries (which preceded the U.S. with chip technology). There is also a natural shift (in fraud) taking place as consumers move to online shopping. Merchants are playing the long game. Another issue is the lack of a PIN on U.S. credit cards. I doubt most consumers know the PIN on their credit card.”
On The 24-Hour Knockout Competition
“It really plays into our product development philosophy. It’s so much easier to develop when you have credit unions standing side by side with us. We are not looking to make a gazillion dollars. We are looking for ideas from credit unions on how we can invest better. Sept. 30 is the end of our fiscal year, so it plays into our investment decisions for 2017.
On What Plans For 2017?
“We have just started to scratch the surface of PSCU as a member-owned organization that is an extremely active participant in this industry. We view ourselves as an industry partner. The industry can look to us for our expertise. I think the industry needs PSCU to be a leader, not just in payments but overall in credit unions, too.”
Meanwhile, A Word For The Not-For-Profits From The Profit
You can’t attend a credit union meeting without at least one person (or an entire breakout session) focused on telling the credit union “story.” Here’s how Marcus Lemonis, the entrepreneur, investor, and star of CNBC's hit series The Profit, has to say about that for start-ups and other organizations: "The tighter your story is, the less you can screw it up."
Lemonis said he detests phrases such as "boutique" and "outsource," which he believes do nothing to explain what a company does. Every organization should be able to tell its story succinctly, according to Lemonis.
"If you really are going to try to explain to other people what you do, you have to know yourself what you do, and your employees have to know it," he said. "When you can't do that, it's hard for people to engage."
Frank J. Diekmann can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or @FrankCUToday.