Tag: Innovation

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It’s a Wrap! The 2018 NACUSO Network Conference celebrates the best of collaboration and innovation at the “Happiest Place on Earth”

Keith Kelly, CEO of CU RateReset celebrates his second win with Moderator and CUSO Guru Guy Messick and Jack Antonini

This year’s event began with golf at one of the most beautiful courses in the US – Pelican Hill. Then on Monday afternoon Messick, Lauer & Smith officially kicked off the event with Hot Topics for CUs and CUSOs in 2018. The room was packed and set the tone for another great meeting of minds.

A big thank you to Mastercard, our Exclusive Premier Card Partner for bringing NBA legend David Robinson to our event. David was gracious enough to attend an advocacy fund-raiser breakfast where we exceeded our fund raising goal! After breakfast David took to the main stage to tell the story of how blessed he was as a star athlete that he has devoted the rest of his life to turning those blessings into opportunities for kids. In an interview in 2001 titled “David, The Goliath of Giving” he said, “I didn’t have a lot to do with being 7-1, that was a gift. My talent as a basketball player was a gift. This is my opportunity to give back. My whole motivation is to please God, to be responsible to Him. God has given me more than I ever hoped for, so it’s my responsibility to give back.” That same year the Carver Academy opened its doors, with help from David Robinson. The goal of the academy is to provide low-income, at risk kids a chance for a quality education.

PSCU and CUNA Mutual Group were generous enough to bring us two more incredible keynote speakers:  Bruce Kimbrell from the Disney Institute and futurist Anders Sorman-Nilsson and we were fortunate to have CUNA CEO Jim Nussle.

Each year we recognize greatness in collaboration, innovation and cooperation with CUSO and CU of the Year Awards. The winners this year are:

To read more about the award winners click here.

Next Big Idea Judges: Bill Beardsley, Sarah Canepa Bang, Kris Kovacs and Kirk Drake

CUSO people are the unique combination of a cooperative heart with a brain for business. That’s why we call them the “cool kids.” Three years ago we branded the annual event the “Network” conference because we know this is where deals get done. A great example, was last year’s winner of the 2017 Next Big Idea Competition and one of this year’s judges Kris Kovacs, CEO of Constellation. He said: “There is no doubt that winning the NACUSO Next Big Idea Competition was the best way to launch the Constellation Digital Platform and our new CUSO. Following the win we raised $29M and signed up nine credit unions representing $20B in assets.”

The Next Big Idea Competition is the highlight of our event and this year’s was by far the most competitive. We had four amazing judges: 2017 Next Big Idea winner Kris Kovacs, CEO of Constellation, Bill Beardsley, President of Michigan Business Connection, Herb Wegner Award winner Sarah Capepa Bang and author of CU 2.0 and President and CEO of Ongoing Operations, Kirk Drake. If you want to read some of the funniest bios, click here.

The winner of this year’s 2018 NACUSO Next Big Idea Competition for the SECOND time is Keith Kelly, CEO of CU RateReset. Two years ago Keith won the competition with CU RateReset. This year he entered with Knocknock, a disruptive digital solution that provides bilateral interaction between the credit union and the member to deliver “just in time offers” based on real time triggers.

A big thank you to our record number of exhibitors that included our partners. We could not put on event of this caliber without your support. A big shoutout to Shawna Luna, who for the last 18 years has been putting out one great event after another.

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CU RateReset Wins 2018 NACUSO Next Big Idea Contest for the Second Time

In the toughest competition to date, CU RateReset CEO Keith Kelly once again knocks it out of the park with his 7 minute presentation at the Next Big Idea Competition last week at the NACUSO Network Conference at the Disneyland Hotel.

Keith Kelly, CEO of CU RateReset celebrates his second win with Moderator and CUSO Guru Guy Messick and Jack Antonini

Two years ago Keith won the competition with CU RateReset. This year he entered with Knocknock, a disruptive digital solution that provides bilateral interaction between the credit union and the member to deliver “just in time offers” based on real time triggers.

“This year we tied the record for the most applications for the competition with 14,” said Jack Antonini, President/CEO of NACUSO. “Every year we see this contest getting more and more competitive. Our event has become the place ‘where deals get done’ as evidenced by last year’s winner Kris Kovacs of Constellation.mi”

“There is no doubt that winning the NACUSO Next Big Idea Competition was the best way to launch the Constellation Digital Platform and our new CUSO. Following the win we raised $29M and signed up nine credit unions representing $20B in assets,” said Kovacs, who was a guest judge in this year’s competition along with Bill Beardsley, President of Michigan Business Connection, Herb Wegner Award winner Sarah Canepa Bang and author of CU 2.0 and President and CEO of Ongoing Operations Kirk Drake.

Each contestant gets exactly 7 minutes to present their big idea. CUSO Guru Guy Messick is the moderator for the event. After their presentation the judges ask the tough questions for another 10-15 minutes. At the end of the 5 presentations the audience ultimately decides the winner using a mobile app to cast their votes. The other 4 contestants this year were:

“We want to thank all of the applicants this year. It was by far the hardest competition to date,” said Antonini. The other 9 applicants were:

Thank you to our judges, the contestants, the attendees and of course Mastercard and CU Journal for making this the best competition in the credit union world.

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NACUSO Recognizes Excellence in Collaboration at 2018 Network Conference

The National Association of Credit Union Services Organizations (NACUSO), the only trade association focused on growing and protecting the CUSO movement recognized four outstanding CUSOs and one innovative and collaborative credit union at the 2018 NACUSO Network Conference at the Disneyland Hotel.

The Servion Group (L to R) S. Brad Crandall, Kari Lauber, Greg Schatzke, Steve Albers, Melanie Meier, LeAnn Case and Jack Antonini

NACUSO understands the importance that collaboration and innovation play in building a strong and vibrant credit union industry. The CUSO of the Year award has been in place since 1998 and has recognized such legendary CUSOs as the CO-OP Shared Branch network, CU Direct, CU*Answers, CUSO Financial Services and PSCU. Last year’s recipient was CU*NorthWest. This year’s winner is The Servion Group. The Servion Group was founded in 1987 as CU Mortgage Services, Inc., by three Minnesota credit unions – Twin City Co-ops Federal Credit Union (SPIRE Credit Union), City-County Federal Credit Union (purchased by WINGS Financial Credit Union), and NWA FCU (WINGS Financial Credit Union) – looking to offer competitive mortgage solutions to their members. Their solutions now span mortgage, title, realty, financial advisory and commercial lending resources.

“We had so many great nominees for awards this year that we added a runner-up to the CUSO of the Year category,” said Jack Antonini, President/CEO of NACUSO. The runner up for CUSO of the Year is CUProdigy. Anthony Montgomery, CEO, summed up CUProdigy this way, “As a proud member of NACUSO, we take our commitment to delivering value to credit unions very seriously. Whether it’s our modern, cloud based core or our core agnostic cloud infrastructure services, we’re focused on not only delivering technologically superior solutions, but highly cost effective solutions. Many vendors claim it, but we really are a true technology partner to our credit unions.”

Jack Antonini with CUProdigy CEO Anthony Montgomery

“The criteria for both awards were selected to recognize those organizations that are making a significant difference and contribution to our industry,” explains Antonini. “In 2016 we added a third category for CUSOs that are fairly new in operations, The New CUSO of the Year Award, recognizing CUSOs that have started in the past 5 years. We know that it takes time to grow the business so our goal is to showcase those efforts that we believe have real staying power and are already making an impact.” Last year’s winner was CU Revest.

This year’s winner is OnApproach. The predecessor was actually founded in 2003 as a consultancy specializing in data warehousing, data integration, analytics and reporting. They completed big projects with clients such as Toro and Land o’ Lakes. But in 2009 they completed a major reporting and analytics project within the credit union industry The insights gained from this project and subsequent projects in the CU space led them to envision a data integration, analytics, and reporting product tailored to the US credit union market. So in 2014, Denali Alaskan FCU and Ideal Credit Union became the initial investors in, and helped form the OnApproach CUSO.

OnApproach, Austin Wentzlaff, Jack Antonini, Mark Portz and CEO, Paul Ablack

“We also selected a runner-up for New CUSO of the year because CU Certified Auto is the first program to offer a best in class vehicle service contract for credit union members while giving back 100% of the underwriting profit to the participating credit union,” Antonini explained. “We just had to acknowledge these unique CUSO models that are really committed to helping our members by helping our credit unions.”

CU Certified Dan Daggett, Jack Antonini, Melanie Mun sey and President and Founder, Mark Giguere

The Credit Union Collaboration and Innovation Award was added in 2012 to expand the program to recognize a credit union demonstrating the successful use of a CUSO model to serve their membership’s financial needs. Criteria include showing how the business strategy for the credit union leverages a CUSO to create value for the credit union and its members. Past winners include Bethpage, America First, Workers’ and Bellco Credit Unions and Allegacy FCU. Last year’s winners were ORNL FCU and Y-12 FCU. This year’s winner is Maps Credit Union.

Maps Credit Union (L to R) Amy Beattie, Jack Antonini, CEO Mark Zook, Christopher Federici, David Deckelmann, Tom Marks

Maps Credit Union’s interest in CUSOs started in the late 90’s when NCUA didn’t like some of the Credit Union’s investments and they forced them to divest $30 million of them.  This was a huge blow and depleted Maps to about a 5% capital ratio.  The action of shrinking hampered their ability to grow net income organically – hence the need for CUSOs.  Mark Zook met Guy Messick at a CUES conference and was introduced to NACUSO and the rest is history!

Maps CU has since built some very innovative CUSOs. Their current wholly or majority owned CUSOs that collectively serve 200 CUs across the US:

  • CU Wireless – provides credit unions with remote deposit capture and member survey programs
  • Advanced Reporting – national provider of pre-employment screening, tenant screening and student screening
  • Maps Insurance Services – regional property casualty agency
  • CU Benefits – national medical benefits agency exclusively serving credit unions

Congratulations to all the winners.