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TRELLANCE ACQUIRES IRONSAFE CUSO PLANS TO DRIVE GROWTH TO CREDIT UNIONS WITH DATA ANALYTICS

Trellance, the Tampa-based CUSO that is on a mission to deliver end-to-end products and services to realize growth and profitability for credit unions, announced its acquisition of IronSafe, an Illinois-based software company that offers data analytics. President & CEO of Trellance, Tom Davis, said, “We recognize the importance of data analytics in providing insights to drive results today and into the future. With this acquisition, Trellance will give credit unions access to an integral resource to navigate the financial landscape. We will put the power in their hands to unlock data that was not available to them.”

IronSafe offers data analytics with a unique extraction capability to its customers and some of its functionalities are already in use by over 2,300 credit unions. Trellance will benefit from the expertise of the IronSafe staff and powerful dashboards that will help credit unions to integrate data from different sources and arm them with insights that will enhance how they serve their members.

The CUSO plans to leverage the data analytics capabilities of IronSafe’s proprietary platform and the expertise of the staff in its existing suite of products and services. “We see the benefits of this acquisition as two-fold”, said Bill Lehman, SVP of Managed Services at Trellance. “The Trellance team will become more effective to credit unions in our consultations as we use data to drive our conversations; and our credit union members will also have access to meaningful data to help them work smarter and more efficient in executing targeted initiatives to realize growth across their entire organizations”, added Lehman.

About Trellance:

With over 30 years of experience in the payments industry and partnering with credit unions, Trellance continues to work towards ensuring that all those served by financial service cooperatives have access to exceptional products and services, while maintaining our commitment to foster growth. Being processor-neutral allows us to offer unbiased guidance and set us apart from our competitors.

 

Learn more about us at www.Trellance.com, visit us at www.thepaymentsreview.com for industry insights and our perspective on the future, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter @Trellance.

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CU Evolution: Helping Small Credit Unions Think Big by Howard Bufe, President of CU Evolution

The financial services world, especially when it comes to the lender-borrower relationship, is undergoing intense disruption. Status quo leadership and lending will not work for most small credit unions. The time to evolve is now, and that is precisely why we have founded our new CUSO, CU Evolution

This month, we officially opened CU Evolution’s doors for business. The CUSO gives small credit unions (under $100mm) the strategies and tools to provide exceptional member and employee experiences in a rapidly evolving world.

My colleague, Deke Alexander, CEO of CU Evolution, summed up our mission best when he said, “Great leaders and great lenders – those are the credit union people who will transform the movement. CU Evolution’s hands-on, fully customized programs are built to help today’s credit union leaders and lenders go next-level, and fast.”

Our team is focused on evolving a credit union’s strategic planning, lending, leadership and marketing capabilities. The programs we offer are fully customizable, allowing credit unions to choose the areas on which they want to focus. Those areas can be anything from board leadership, succession planning and culture development to logo design, branding guides and custom marketing campaigns. Services for credit unions in need of lending program consultation include strategic consultation and staff education.

Continue reading CU Evolution: Helping Small Credit Unions Think Big by Howard Bufe, President of CU Evolution

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WATER AND POWER COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION PARTNERS WITH CO-OP FINANCIAL SERVICES ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Innovative Banking Solutions, Member-Centric User Experiences at Heart of Partnership

Looking for a business partner to help it digitally transform its services to members, Water and Power Community Credit Union has contracted with CO-OP Financial Services for products addressing member needs at virtually every touchpoint.

WPCCU (www.wpcu.org), based in Los Angeles California, is a longstanding participant in the CO-OP Shared Branch network of more than 5,700 branch locations and CO-OP ATM network of nearly 30,000 ATMs nationwide. It will now use CO-OP Terminal Driving services to help manage its own ATM fleet, as well as use CO-OP PIN/Signature Debit and CO-OP Full-Service Credit to process cardholder transactions. WPCCU has also retained CO-OP’s call center services for direct member-facing customer service.  

“We made a philosophical decision to go with CO-OP because we believe they are the best organization to help us with our digital transformation,” said Celeste Zibelli, Vice President, Marketing and Financial Services for WPCCU. “We wanted a partner, not a vendor. CO-OP offers a symbiotic relationship because they are credit union-owned – they have a deep commitment to and understanding of credit unions.” 

“CO-OP strives to serve as a consultative partner with every client, and this close working association has never been more important than now, as together as an industry we are on a digital transformation journey,” said Matt Kardell, Chief Revenue Officer for CO-OP Financial Services. “We are very excited to have an expanded opportunity to contribute to WPCCU’s successful delivery of outstanding member service.”

A Technology and Solutions Ecosystem for Credit Unions

CO-OP’s technology and solutions ecosystem is designed for credit unions to meet consumer demands for seamless, secure and omni-digital user experiences, which also played a key part in WPCCU’s decision.

“By working with CO-OP on many different member services, we can better offer a consistent experience for both members and our staff,” said Zibelli. “We want to deliver really innovative banking solutions and empower our team members to provide amazing user experiences, and partnering with CO-OP will help us achieve that promise.” 

“Another factor in our partnering decision is the need to know our members as thoroughly as we possibly can,” said Zibelli. “To do that, we need all the data we can get our hands on, and by working with CO-OP at a variety of member touchpoints, they will be able to help us from a master data management standpoint.”   

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.

 

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CO-OP FINANCIAL SERVICES RELEASES WHITE PAPER ON THE ‘HOW’ OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Paper Explores Seven Strategies for Credit Unions Evolving for Digital Consumers

CO-OP Financial Services has released a new white paper, “Seven Strategies to Accelerate Your Digital Transformation,” providing practical guidance for credit unions positioning themselves for growth in a digital world.

“While most financial services providers understand the ‘what and why’ of digital transformation, they are less comfortable with the ‘how,’” said Todd Clark, President/CEO, CO-OP. “We’ve seen firsthand the acceleration of the digital marketplace and understand that digital transformation is the only solution forward. This paper identifies seven essential strategies we’ve discovered through our own shift from a legacy organization to a digital-first, integrated ecosystem.”

Credit union leaders will learn why each of the strategies for accelerated digital transformation is critical to success in the digital era, as well as how to begin implementing them within their credit unions.

The seven strategies explored in the paper are:

Be Member-Centric. Being member-centric in the digital age means going beyond meeting expectations to surpassing and anticipating them.

Use Data to Optimize Engagement. Data analytics generates distinctive member profiles that inform hyper-personalized services.

Be Digitally Accessible. Open Application Program Interface (API) strategy and a strong click-and-mortar mix can help credit unions reach members through digital-first channels.

Drive Excellence through AI. Artificial intelligence and machine learning drive experiences and new data in real time.

Make Security as a Growth Driver. Design the security experience to be frictionless and anticipatory through a mix of cybersecurity and machine learning.

Integrate Channel Experiences. A seamless consumer experience at every touchpoint is a crucial retention tool and the primary reason people stay with their financial institution. 

Embrace Platform Thinking: Behave as an Ecosystem. Innovate across channels and think at the platform level – embracing partnerships and delivering new services unique to the credit union movement.

The free white paper can be downloaded immediately at CO-OP’s white paper landing page. 

In addition to the white paper, CO-OP is partnering with credit unions on their digital transformation through a variety of strategic counseling and educational opportunities. Among these opportunities is CO-OP’s 2018 “Roadshows,” taking place in various locations around the country throughout the summer and fall. To learn more about content and schedule, visit the Roadshows webpage.

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.

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eDOC celebrates National eSign Day

June 30th marked the eighteenth anniversary of the enactment of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National (ESIGN) Commerce Act. Passed by the United States Congress in 2000, the act facilitates the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate or foreign commerce. Dubbed “National eSign Day”, the act has been instrumental in empowering credit unions to enhance their members’ experience and advance the cooperative movement at large.

The ability to apply digital signatures to electronic documents has returned value to credit unions by saving them time, money, and resources. For example, eDOC Innovations’ eSign solution, eDOCSignature, has saved credit unions 1,020,000 sheets of paper (127 full grown trees), and more than $55,000 in printer ink over the last two years. In addition to resources saved, credit unions now are closing nearly 50% of their loans electronically, increasing speed to closure and saving their members time. Similar value is being added by all eSignature solutions penetrating the credit union space.

“eDOC Innovations has been a pioneer in electronic signature technology since the ESIGN act was enacted into law,” stated Mark Fierro, executive vice president at eDOC Innovations. “It has been a long road, and each day we see greater utilization of eSignatures in a wide variety of industries. National eSign Day is a great reminder that you can do almost everything electronically. Please join us in celebrating National eSign Day and finally ditch the paper and pen for good!”  

About eDOC Innovations, Inc.

eDOC Innovations is the nationwide leader in mobile enterprise digital transaction management and e-commerce software for credit unions. For more than 20 years eDOC Innovations has been designing solutions to reduce overhead, increase operational efficiency and provide convenience to members. eDOC Innovations’ products include solutions for remote mobile and in-branch closings, mobile e-signature processing, digital asset lifecycle management, intelligent and interactive form automation, mobile remote deposit capture, electronic statements and more. To learn about our technology visit: https://edoclogic.com/products/doclogic/ or give us a call at 800.425.7766 option 3.