Author: Denise Wymore

Xtend, Inc., the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, announced last week that the board has approved an impressive ten new owners of the CUSO. The new owners support a combined membership of over 73,000 and $815 million in total assets. These credit unions will join the existing group of eighty owners who each share equal parts of ownership in Xtend. Per Xtend bylaws, each credit union owner carries a block of 200 shares. The new owners include:

• Bragg Mutual FCU (Fayetteville, NC)
• Ocala Community Credit Union (Ocala, FL)
• DayMet Credit Union (Dayton, OH)
• Fire Police City County FCU (Fort Wayne, IN)
• Chiphone FCU (Elkhart, IN)
• SPE FCU (State College, PA)
• 1st Street Credit Union (Sarasota, FL)
• Bridge Credit Union (Columbus, OH)
• West Michigan Postal Service FCU (Muskegon, MI)
• Valley Oak Credit Union (Three Rivers, CA)

“As we are a national CUSO, it’s exciting to create these new relationships from all over the country,” said Jason Conrad, Xtend’s VP of Business Development. “The addition of these owners speaks to the importance shared resources have in the industry and our shared belief in the value of our organization.”

About Xtend, Inc.

Xtend, Inc. is a 100% credit union-owned CUSO formed in 2002 with headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Xtend provides a wide array of managerial, operational, marketing, technical planning and consulting services for credit unions of all sizes. In short, Xtend is an aggregation point for shared resources that allows credit unions to deliver products and services more cost-effectively. Their strategic offerings include bookkeeping services, member contact services, back-office mortgage services, partnered liquidity opportunities, shared branching, and payment processing services. Xtend provides services for over 250 credit unions representing more than 1.2 million members and $13B in assets. The CUSO is currently owned by 90 credit union industry partners. For more information, visitwww.xtendcu.com.

Collaboration with Financial Health Network and Members Development Company helps assess financial health of credit union members and employees across the country

In continued support of its corporate philanthropic cause of financial well-being, PSCU, the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO), today announced the findings of a new study, “How Credit Unions Can Become Financial Health Providers,” that assessed the financial health of credit union members and employees against a national benchmark. The study was conducted by the Financial Health Network with support from Members Development Company (MDC) and PSCU.

According to research findings, the financial health needs of members are evident: Over 60% of credit union members surveyed are struggling financially and at least one-third live paycheck-to-paycheck. In line with these findings, more than 60% of credit union employees are struggling financially, too.

While recent years have seen strong economic growth and positive gains in Americans’ general financial well-being, credit union members’ financial health remains stagnant, according to credit union member and employee financial health data.

“The aggregate data shows the credit union industry still has work to do to improve financial health among its members and employees,” said Merry Pateuk, senior vice president, Industry Engagement at PSCU. “Our goal through this research and partnership is to help credit unions and other industry organizations rethink how we operate, the investments in products and services we make and the resources we provide in order to prioritize financial well-being. Measuring the financial health of members and employees is a key step toward improving financial outcomes.”

In addition, the study reveals that credit unions need to move to the forefront of financial health education to compete effectively against other financial institutions and big banks. The study also provides an overview of how credit unions can pivot to become financial health providers.

By leveraging the FinHealthCheck, a cutting-edge business-to-business platform for credit unions, the project team distributed financial health surveys to members and employees of Allegacy FCU (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Meritrust Credit Union (Wichita, Kan.) in October and November 2020. In addition, Financial Health Network tapped into available data from past project work with seven additional credit unions and interviewed a diverse set of credit union executives and thought leaders. The Financial Health Network segmented its nationally representative U.S. Financial Health Pulse® data set to compare survey responses from self-identified credit union members to the benchmark population.

Leveraging these project findings, PSCU, the Financial Health Network and MDC plan to identify in-market products to better meet the needs of members and employees to improve financial well-being, as well as provide opportunities to develop new offerings that fill market gaps.

About PSCU

PSCU, the nation’s premier payments CUSO, supports the success of 1,500 credit unions representing more than 5.4 billion transactions annually. Committed to service excellence and focused on innovation, PSCU’s payment processing, risk management, data and analytics, loyalty programs, digital banking, marketing, strategic consulting and mobile platforms help deliver possibilities and seamless member experiences. Comprehensive, 24/7/365 member support is provided by contact centers located throughout the United States. The origin of PSCU’s model is collaboration and scale, and the company has leveraged its influence on behalf of credit unions and their members for more than 40 years. Today, PSCU provides an end-to-end, competitive advantage that enables credit unions to securely grow and meet evolving consumer demands. For more information, visit pscu.com.

Year-Long Event Series for Credit Union Leaders Kicks Off April 13

THINK, the premier innovation and content platform for credit unions, kicks off its 2021 virtual series on April 13, continuing the momentum begun in 2020 when nearly 5,000 credit union leaders attended nine different events. CO-OP will present 2021’s interactive events under the theme “Rethink Everything,” reflecting the major shift required to meet changes in consumer sentiment and expectations since the onset of the pandemic.

“THINK Forums” are the main pillars of the 2021 program, hosted once again by consumer finance journalist Jean Chatzky. Attendees can register for the April 13 Forum, “Rethink What Drives Your P&L to Unleash Future Growth,” immediately at https://co-opthink.org.

The featured keynote speaker on April 13 is Steven Kotler, co-author of the 2012 New York Times best-seller, “Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think.” Kotler will discuss how exponential advances in technology have already and will continue to impact our daily lives and society as a whole.

“As we enter the post-pandemic world, where traditional product-centric economic levers are under pressure, we believe now is the time for credit unions to really rethink their business model – to one that’s truly centered on serving members in ways that they want to be served,” said Samantha Paxson, Chief Experience Officer for CO-OP. “This will require rethinking our perspective on member relationships, our purpose behind operations and even our basic definition of economic success. The THINK 21 virtual series will present ways credit union leaders can transform their institution into a ‘Business of Member Experience.’”

Across each of the THINK 21 virtual series events, thought leaders will explore the why and how of several major shifts necessary for continued growth of the credit union industry. The sessions will explore the fundamental changes in mindset and operations required to reimagine the credit union model and center it on the member experience. The series includes three types of events, including Virtual Forums, Master Classes and Power Lunches:

• THINK Forums: Virtual broadcasts designed to address pressing credit union challenges and opportunities to solve, featuring renowned companies and leaders from outside the industry paired with credit union leaders (two hours each).
• THINK Master Classes: Topic-specific virtual learning opportunities that take THINK Forums a step further, including hands-on interactive exercises facilitated by subject matter experts (90 minutes each).
• THINK Power Lunches: Bite-sized virtual deep dives into a variety of product-specific strategies important to credit unions right now (60 minutes each).

“Future growth relies on how quickly we can pivot,” said Paxson. “THINK 21 continues where THINK 20 left off. Alongside a group of big thinkers, including behavioral economists, performance experts, entrepreneurs and dynamic brands, we plan to satisfy the movement’s appetite for of-the-moment strategies that will earn the primary financial relationship with more members and drive volume and growth.”

The THINK 21 Virtual event series will run throughout 2021. More dates and speakers are to be announced and available athttps://co-opthink.org.

About CO-OP Financial Services
CO-OP Financial Services is a payments and financial technology company whose mission is ensuring the success of the credit union movement. CO-OP payments solutions, engagement services and strategic counsel help credit unions optimize member experiences to consistently provide seamless, personalized multi-channel offerings, while delivering secure, sophisticated fraud mitigation service. For more information, visit www.co-opfs.org.

PSCU, the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization, has updated its weekly transaction analysis from its Owner credit union members on a same-store basis to identify the impact of COVID-19 on consumer spending and shopping trends. Our infographic is also attached.

To provide relevant updates on market performance, experts from PSCU’s Advisors Plus and Data & Analytics teams today released year-over-year weekly performance trends. In this week’s installment, PSCU compares the sixth week of the year (the week ending Feb. 7, 2021 compared to the week ending Feb. 9, 2020).

“Growth was strong in Week 6 for both debit and credit purchases, with credit performing well above the previous four-week average,” said Glynn Frechette, SVP, Advisors Plus at PSCU. “In this week’s deeper dive, we revisit the Goods sector, where we continue to see healthy increases across multiple retail categories. Amazon continues to experience exceptional year-over-year growth, further supporting the significant increase in ecommerce activity since the onset of the pandemic.”

• Growth rates for both debit and credit were very strong in Week 6.
  • Debit card spend is up 21.6% in Week 6 and debit transactions finished up 3.6%. Debit purchases are lower than the previous four-week average of +25.8% and transactions are also lower than the previous four-week average of +7.6%.
  • Credit card spend in Week 6 finished up 8%, well above the previous four-week average of +3.4%. Transactions finished up 0.1%, higher than the previous four-week average of -3.2%.
• Consumers continue to show strong adoption of digital payments, including contactless, mobile wallets and Card Not Present (CNP) alternatives, while using less cash.
  • Contactless “tap-and-go” transactions via dual interface cards continue to show strong consumer acceptance, with debit showing notable strength. Debit contactless transactions as a percent of Card Present activity on contactless debit cards have more than doubled from around 8.4% in January 2020 to 18.2% in Week 6 of 2021. Contactless credit transactions have also more than doubled, growing from 6.5% to 13.6% of Card Present activity on contactless credit cards in the same timeframe. We continue to view these results as conservative, as the ratio considers the proportion of contactless activity to all card present transactions, not just those able to be tapped.
  • Mobile wallet (i.e. “Pays”) transactions and purchases for both credit and debit cards continue to show good growth with Card Present activity. Debit mobile wallet purchases finished Week 6 up 57.4% year over year, lower than the previous four-week average of +68.2%. Credit mobile wallet purchases are up 46.7% year over year, higher than the previous four-week average of +43.3%. These results represent six supported mobile wallets: Apple Pay, Fitbit Pay, Garmin Pay, Google Pay, LG Pay and Samsung Pay.
  • We continue to see more volume conducted via Card Not Present (CNP) transactions. For credit, 57.5% of purchase volume and 46.5% of transactions are CNP. For debit, 47% of purchase volume and 32.5% of transactions are CNP. Purchase mix has held steady and is up 7.3 percentage points year over year for credit and 7.4 percentage points for debit. Transaction mix also remains steady, up 10.5 percentage points for credit and 8.1 percentage points for debit year over year.
  • Cash withdrawal transactions at the ATM are down year over year. For the most recent week, the number of cash withdrawals was down 17.4%, below the previous four-week average of -15.1%.
• From a merchant category perspective, the start of 2021 continues to show strong results in Goods, Utilities, Services and Grocery Stores, while year-over-year performance for Travel and Entertainment remain depressed. Drug Store performance has seen a steady decline in the past few weeks. (All percentages are year-over-year weekly comparisons).
  • Purchases in the Goods sector remain strong, up 27.3% for credit and 34.6% for debit; Utilities spend was up 22.3% for debit and up 13.1% for credit; Service spend was up 27.0% for debit and up 14.5% for credit; Grocery spend was up 15% for debit and up 23.0% for credit.
  • Sectors trying to return to positive growth include Drug Stores, which are down 2.2% for debit and up 1.3% for credit and Restaurants,finishing up 1.4% for debit and down 14.2% for credit.
  • Travel remains depressed, down 15.5% for debit and down 48.3% for credit.
• Our regional analysis of spend utilizes the segmentation used by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) for economic analysis. Please see the attached infographic for a map of changes to credit and debit purchases by region.
  • Overall U.S. spend was up 8% for credit purchases. The Southeast (+12.8%) and Southwest (+11.8%) finished as the strongest regions for Week 6. The Mideast (-0.1%) and New England regions (-3.9%) had the lowest credit purchase performance.
  • Overall U.S. spend was up 21.6% for debit purchases. The Southeast (+24.3%) and Plains (+23.8) finished as the strongest regions for Week 6. Hawaii (+13.9%) and the Mideast (+15.5%) region had the lowest debit purchase performance.
  • PSCU’s Weekly U.S. State/Territory Analysis is available at www.PSCU.com/COVID19, ranking U.S. states and territories by year-over-year performance for debit purchases, credit purchases and ATM transactions.

• This week’s deep dive revisits the Goods sector:
  • The largest portion of the Goods sector is comprised of Miscellaneous Stores, including furniture, home furnishings, appliances, sporting goods, liquor, pet and hobby stores. For Week 6, this makes up 33% of debit purchases and 34% of credit purchases. Purchases are up in this category 37% for debit and 29% for credit in Week 6.
  • Retail stores represent 30% of debit purchases and 26% of credit purchases within the Goods sector. Within this category, home improvement, hardware, landscaping and discount stores have experienced increased spending. For Retail Stores, debit purchases are up 37%, lower than the prior four-week average of +49%. Credit purchases are up 30%, above the prior four-week average of +27%.
  • As a significant contributor to the CNP category, we have aggregated the merchant categories for Amazon to create a comprehensive view. Amazon debit purchases are up 70% year over year and credit purchases are up 50%. For the prior four weeks, debit purchases were up 83% and credit purchases were up 48%.
  • Clothing Stores, one of the most affected categories within the Goods sector, have seen improvements and are now enjoying positive year-over-year growth. For this category, debit purchases outperform credit purchases in finishing Week 6, up 18% for debit and up 3% for credit. The previous four-week averages are +38% for debit purchases and +3% for credit purchases.
  • Goods Sector Card Not Present (CNP) activity remains well above the prior year. For Week 6 in the Goods sector, debit CNP purchases are 41% for 2021 compared to 33% in 2020. For credit CNP purchases, the results are 57% for 2021 compared to 47% in 2020.