By Frank J. Diekmann
After removing all that annoying tinsel and once again swearing not to buy it again, here's what was found in the 2021 Reporter’s E-Notebook that needed to be cleaned out:
NSF Means ‘Not So Fast’
If you missed it, John Deese, CEO of Guardians Credit Union in West Palm Beach, Fla., recently authored a provocative opinion piece in which he basically said “not so fast” when it comes to the automatic assumption the elimination of bounced-check fees is good for every member.
Instead, he urged a rethinking about whether the new policies won’t force many members to turn to payday lenders, suggesting that such supposedly member-friendly decisions aren’t so member friendly after all. Give his column a read if you haven’t already.
In that same column, by the way, Mr. Deese made a separate point about credit unions attacking one another, a point I’ve raised an unfortunate number of times, including most recently here.
“The answer is to embrace the cooperative spirit of credit unions and to avoid using advertising tools to attack other credit unions,” he wrote. “We are better than this and can avoid conflict within the ‘family’ by working together on a common goal whether that be eliminating the appeal of payday lenders or making sure that banks do the right thing for consumers.”
His observation on that point was timely, because the same week the column appeared CUToday.info received a release from one credit union promoting the opening of a new branch that read, “At a time in our industry where we’re seeing banks and credit unions close branch doors…”
Really? Can’t a credit union just celebrate the opening of a new branch without taking a cheap shot at their fellow CUs? Am guessing “Cooperation Among Cooperatives” isn’t carved into the building’s façade, but what is written in stone (or at least paper) is a bonus provision in the CEO’s contract tied to growth.
Marching to the Beat of a New Drummer
Not saying it’s the universe talkin’, just sayin’… In August, the long-time drummer of the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts, died after an incredible 58 years with the band (in addition to his own quintet).
Earlier this month, Aurora FCU in Colorado named its new CEO. His name? Charlie Watts.
Zoom Didn’t Do It, But This Might
Credit union leaders wrestling with what the future holds for hybrid workplaces and even CU meetings and events will want to pay attention to a new technology unveiled by Cisco.
During its WebexOne Customer Conference, Cisco introduced “Webex Hologram,” which enables virtual meetings in augmented reality—with the participants represented as photorealistic holograms instead of cartoon-like avatars, according to one review.
Webex Hologram runs on headsets such as Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap’s Magic Leap 1, which allows the standard 2D Webex meeting to go 3D.
According to Fast Company, which was given a demonstration of the new technology, participants are represented by holograms that look “impressively lifelike.”
It really wasn’t that long ago credit unions were debating whether the Internet was trend or fad, and a short while later debating anew over whether banking by a mobile device could ever be used for more than checking a balance or branch hours.
So, if you’re downplaying whether technologies such as the Webex Hologram and the broader metaverse will once again “change the world,” I can only assume you’re making a killing in your side hustle repairing fax machines.
For the rest of you, a video of Webex Hologram and how it works can be found here.
Your New Steakhouse Spokesperson is a Vegetarian
Credit union groups have increasingly turned to hiring professionals from outside CUs to emcee their meetings, and while I’m reluctant to stereotype them, I will suggest that many seem to have been copied-and-pasted from the same website offering some version of a spiked hair/vibrant sports jackets/dazzling glasses frames/bright sneakers dress code and a persona percolated by a Five-Hour-Energy-bottle-poured-into-an-already overcaffeinated-Trenta-sized-cup-of-Starbucks. They uniformly leap on stage or burst out from behind the curtain breathlessly extolling CU attendees to applaud more vigorously and cheer more loudly and to “give it up for…” and, well, you likely have been on the receiving end, so…
Stereotypes aside, many do a good job of keeping meetings moving along. But the low moment of Conference Emceeing 2021 came at one event during which the electric host—who had also emceed the meeting in prior years—admitted to the audience after two days of celebrating all the differences and advantages of CUs, “I don’t actually belong to a credit union.”
Surprise! That brought some murmurs from the crowd. Scrambling to salvage the vibe in the room he rushed to add that he would have joined a credit union if only there were a solution available to walk him through all the account changes needed to do so and to make the process easier.
You know, that solution many credit unions already have long had in place.
After that, even Five Hour Energy IV bags weren’t going to get the audience jazzed.
He Has a Decal, So It Must Be Safe
Observed by Mitch Joel, the founder of Six Pixels Group, in remarks to the California/Nevada leagues’ REACH Conference, “In 1998 we were telling our kids, ‘Don’t get in strangers’ cars. Don’t talk to strangers.’ Now, parents use apps to contact people they don’t know so they can put their kids in their cars.”
Separately, Joel observed, “Buying, and this includes credit unions, is very transactional. It has created a paradox. With the transactional, we made sure it was get in and out quickly. The online players were thinking, ‘How do I make this more engaging, more social?’ The retailers were sanitizing for my health, but killing my experience. You really have to think about what that paradox switch means to you. Where does this leave companies? When I work with credit unions, it does feel more like you are trying to create an experience.”
That paradox, Joel said, is best summed up in the quote from Jeff Bezos, below:
One Thing They Understand
In conducting an interview recently with a credit union Capitol Hill veteran on whether Congress might act with legislation around buy now, pay later solutions, it occurred to me that if anyone should understand the concept of buying now and paying later, it’s Congress.
If I Had to Guess Which Way People Will Go Here…
There are plenty of forecasts out for what 2022 will hold, so let me offer a sure-thing prediction of my own. The CFPB recently ruled that debt collectors can privately message consumers via social media, but must clearly identify themselves and must also include a way for consumers to stop receiving their messages, basically providing a mechanism to opt out.
Hmm, a debtor can opt-out from the constant reminders of an unpaid debt. I feel kinda, no--I’ll just take the risk and say it--rather confident I know which choice they are going to make.
How Intelligent is Our CEO?
During NAFCU’s CFO Conference in Fr. Lauderdale, David Tuyo, president and CEO of the $955-million University Credit Union in Los Angeles posed a question during a discussion on the use of artificial intelligence that may make some/many CEOs a bit nervous, suggesting technology isn’t just coming for the jobs of tellers and call center reps.
“In my 25 years in financial services I don’t think there’s been anything that has moved this fast,” Tuyo said. “AI is the future. Conversations have gone from how to set up bots to how to set up leadership. An AI CEO may make us uncomfortable, but it is a possibility and something we have to think about.”
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief of CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info. Mr. Diekmann is also author of several new book, including the brand new “The Last Lyric,” a humorous satire about a murder investigation at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in which every line of dialogue is either a classic pop/rock song title or lyric. Available on Amazon, Apple iBook, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Mr. Diekmann is also author of a non-fiction compilation of the very best & worst he has seen and heard in covering more than 500 CU meetings and conferences, “501 Name Tags: How Everything You Need to Know About Business Can Be Learned at a Conference & Forgotten in the Trade Show.” It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Lulu, and Smashwords.