Resource Center

The simultaneous rise in interest rates and expected consumer loan demand create a pivotal opportunity for credit unions. But funding loans may be costly unless credit unions can continue to grow deposits in a challenging economy. Delivering frictionless OAO can help credit unions meet the increase in demand for consumer loans. 

Download this white paper and learn:

• Why the deposit boom is over
• The importance of focusing on the most desired OAO features
• 4 common mistakes to avoid in online account opening
• How to put strategy into action

The main reason for law firms to go paperless is cost and efficiency. The average office worker uses a staggering 10,000 sheets of paper each year—equivalent to 100 Douglas fir trees. And it’s not just bad for the trees: your paper-based practice is wasting your time, frustrating your staff, and limiting your possibilities.

The good news is that streamlined digital technology is transitioning the law office into a digital, paperless future. Never before has it been so easy to gather, store, share and protect information. Download this guide and learn how going paperless can benefit your law firm, including:

• How to gradually build toward a paperless practice
• A step-by-step process of keeping a case paperless, from opening to close
• Necessary skills (with tutorials) to make the most of your digital documents
• Legal/ethical ramifications of new paperless technology

SafeAmerica Credit Union was not unlike most midsize credit unions—it desperately needed to improve its online presence and better engage members in order to meet the demands of a new generation. Before the credit union’s digital transformation, barely any of their members were enrolled in online banking and their products weren’t up-to-par with what their tech-savvy members were used to. They knew that a traditional solution from a legacy provider wasn’t going to cut it. 

Download this case study and learn how they were able to:

• Increase online enrollment
• Drive adoption among all ages
• Find a true online banking partnership
• Create excitement among members
• Implement lasting change

The volatility of recent years has amplified the financial needs of SMBs)that largely go unserved. Commercial banking services and loans that these companies require to run efficiently and stay in the market are often unavailable from many financial institutions. Yet 89% of America’s businesses are SMBs with fewer than 20 employees and represent an estimated $5.2 trillion a year in unmet financial needs. 

This is a prime growth opportunity for credit unions. But it also requires the organization to offer and operate with digital-first commercial banking capabilities.

Download this white paper and learn:

• What banking and lending capabilities SMBs look for
• Why scalable commercial lending matters more than ever
• How to increase member acquisition with commercial banking services

This past spring, the US bond market flashed a common recession warning: the yield curve briefly inverted, with short-term debt paying more than longer-term loans. Traditionally, an inverted yield curve has been an early predictor of a coming recession. But the correlation has grown weaker over the past two economic cycles. 

In the current market, another explanation of the inverted yield curve could be that the yield on two-year debt is rising at a faster pace in response to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening of monetary policy. What can credit unions do to weather this uncertainty? One potential opportunity for your credit union is to consider a hedging strategy for commercial lending. 

Download this white paper and learn about:

• Factors shaping yield curves
• 2 opportunities an inverted yield curve brings
• Types of hedging programs with interest rate swaps
• How a correspondent hedge works & how to utilize it
• How to get started with commercial loan hedging

Alabama Credit Union is known for personal service, low-cost loans, and above-average dividends on deposits. Yet, due to limitations with their payments platform, ACU  had to take payments over the phone and manually provision members' accounts. Because of a lack of integration with their core, their existing EBPP solution created inefficient processes and a lack of convenience for members. This all changed after implementing a new EBPP solution that integrated directly into their banking core.

Download this case study and explore how ACU was able to:

• Boost call center productivity & save 86 man-hours per week
• Process more than 4X their previous payments volume
• Provide members with a better payments experience
• Reduce manual errors & first-payment delinquency

Real-time payments occupy a unique niche in the payments industry, both for its diversity and its rapid growth. The Clearing House RTP® network processes more than $16 billion each quarter and Zelle processes more than $120 billion. Direct push payments such as Mastercard Send and Visa Direct settle payments in less than thirty minutes and usually within seconds, and same-day Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments settle within hours.

All these options have different use-case benefits and combine to create a very rich environment. However, this level of choice can confuse credit unions as they discern where to place their bets based on what their members will find most important.

Download this white paper to learn about:

• Why credit unions should not just focus on one payment rail
• How consumers are willing to pay for speed
• Overcoming challenges from integrating new payment types
• Determining members’ needs

Credit unions excel at helping members understand and control their financial well-being — a key factor in building stronger relationships, trust, and loyalty. To build on that foundation, credit unions should consider expanding credit card underwriting by adding incremental relationship data.

• Using only credit scores is straightforward but can limit your ability to meet members’ needs. Over 14% of people use Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) technology because they can’t get approved for a credit card. 
• About 60% of people in the U.S. have a score lower than the national average of 714. 
• For those just starting to build credit, Gen Z (679) has the lowest average, but the group with the highest room for growth.

Download this white paper to learn how your credit union can engage more members and stay competitive with a credit card partnership with Elan Credit Card.

*Data sources available in full whitepaper.

Cybersecurity is especially important for credit unions and taking a proactive approach to managing virtual infrastructure means they need to quickly identify direct threats and risks to their assets. Hours of slow, manual work can be the difference between a cybersecurity disaster and peace of mind for your company and members.

Download this case study and learn about how Oregon’s largest credit union was able to:

• Analyze threat intelligence data in under two hours
• Prioritize risk across thousands of hosts
• Identify real-time business risk with exportable reports
• Focus on vulnerabilities most critical to infrastructure
• Reduce cybersecurity threats & risk

There is little doubt that members' expectation and demand to transact whenever they want is becoming the "new normal". With the current rate of adoption and usage of networks like the RTP® network (The Clearing House (TCH), Zelle® (EWS), Visa Direct, MasterCard Send® and the anticipated success of the FedNow Service network launch (2023), consumers and businesses will soon be exposed to many new ways to move money and do business than ever before. 

Download this guide now to learn: 

• Different paths to real-time payments
• Pillars for a successful rollout of real-time payments
• How to operate different payment services.
• How to determine your members’ needs/li /ul

Member behavior has shifted over the years to be digital-first, but the branch will continue to remain an important channel in delivering a true omni-experience. Through a series of in-depth interviews and a methodology for determining business value, this paper reveals the significant value realized from branch modernization solutions.  

Download this white paper and discover the data-backed value, benefits, and effectiveness of credit unions using branch modernization efforts. You’ll learn: 

• How to garner substantial additional revenue
• How to optimize branch operations, including reducing wait time by up to 49% 
• Improve member satisfaction by up to 28%
• And more!

We’re in an increasingly difficult atmosphere for credit union marketers and it’s important to be acutely aware of changes in the rapidly changing regulatory climate. Fortunately, there are still billions of available data points and signals to help navigate the changes. 

Download this article and learn about:

• Non-traditional digital marketing channels to use to reach members & prospects
• What credit unions can learn from other industries to improve their digital marketing
• How to monitor & quantify the ROAS of your digital advertising
• What to consider as web consumer privacy changes go into effect
• How to reach & measure audiences with precision & real-world impact

As 2023 draws near, many questions are arising for credit unions at all stages of real-time payment participation. In a recent webinar, credit unions had the opportunity to ask questions directly to Joni Hopkins, Vice President, Product and Relationship Management Group at Federal Reserve Financial Services regarding how to prepare for the upcoming FedNowSM Service. 

Download this white paper for insights from that discussion along with  the latest information on the FedNowSM Service and how to connect, including:

• The evolution of the FedNowSM Service
• How to prepare to connect
• Initial questions to ask service providers
• Costs and additional considerations
• How real-time payments benefit members

No matter the rising rate environment or the direction the yield curve takes, hedging allows your credit union to help its commercial members mitigate risk and take advantage of market opportunities. Some credit unions may think of hedging as an inaccessible tool that requires managing complex derivatives, but that does not have to be the case. With the right solution, you can add hedging to your lender toolbox and even educate your commercial members easily. 

This guide discusses how to get started with hedging in detail, including: 

• Using interest rate swaps for your loan hedging strategy
• Benefits of a correspondent hedging program
• Developing your loan hedging strategy
• Mitigating risk within budget
• Key features to offer members in this rate environment

Despite advancements in vulnerability management over the last decade, most organizations continue to rely solely on CVSS scores from vulnerability scanners or CVSS scores in conjunction with threat intel feeds to prioritize their remediation efforts. Because these strategies do not consider most of the context about network, host configuration, user activity, or permissions, prioritizing using them is little better than guessing. 

Download this infosheet and see how RiskAnalyzer stacks up in a range of capabilities including:

• Assess current & future vulnerability
• Reveal exploitable data
• Prioritize risk for each host
• Determine end-to-end attack scenarios
• Calculate business risk each vulnerability poses

Fraud is a lucrative business that continuously adapts to the same market forces driving the behaviors of modern organizations. As the dynamics of the digital economy and virtual era evolve, the manifestations of application fraud are generating complex, quickly growing risks for credit unions and substantially influencing fraud control investment priorities. 

Download this eBook and learn about:

• Trends & drivers of synthetic identity fraud
• The fraud-accessible enterprise climate
• Balancing the scales between growth & risk
• Closing the gateway to fraud with a multi-layered defense
• Stopping synthetic identity fraud with end-to-end protection

Credit unions saw their members embrace online and mobile banking when branches closed during the pandemic yet ATMs remain a crucial part of the member experience. But credit union members also want access to all available options to interact with their accounts – physical branches, phone branching and ATMs – and they are willing to move their business elsewhere to ensure this. In addition, members want the interaction with their credit union to be seamless regardless of the delivery channel, so outdated technology or inadequate processes that hinder this experience are now a liability. 

Download this white paper and learn how to:

• Work smarter, not harder with SaaS
• Streamline ATM management
• Bring more value to members
• Gain increased control over your ATMs
• Improve operational efficiency

76% of all fraud attempts feature a wire transfer – the increase in originators, volume, and dollar amount and other inherent characteristics of wire payments make them very attractive to fraudsters. Rules-based solutions being implemented by many institutions to detect fraudulent wires are time-consuming to set up and maintain, generate a large number of false positives and still miss fraud. It’s more important than ever for financial institutions to implement cost effective wire security solutions. 

Using behavioral analytics to understand originator and beneficiary behavior has proven its effectiveness regardless of how a wire request originated, how an account is compromised or the overall fraud scheme in play. Download this ebook and learn about:

• The diversity of fraud schemes 
• Sample fraud schemes featuring wire payments
• Total cost of wire fraud
• Available solutions for detecting wire fraud
• Advantages of behavior-based anomaly detection

One-third of members surveyed said that their financial institution's lack of support for local charities would persuade them to move their accounts elsewhere. 

In this report, you’ll discover how important supporting the community is to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. Findings include:

• 93% of consumers who say their FIs are generous with charitable contributions and are "very or extremely satisfied."
• 42% of Millennials would move their accounts over to FIs that donate to local communities.
• Millennials, on average, volunteer 50% more than Baby Boomers per year.

Elan understands that supporting partners goes beyond credit card servicing. In 2022 alone, Elan has donated over $625,000 on behalf of credit union partners to nonprofits in their local communities.

For the past 20 years, the most common method for cybersecurity teams to prioritize vulnerability remediation efforts has been the CVSS. However, the rating scale is becoming increasingly risky as it does not account for modern threats and unique infrastructures. Gain a better understanding of how to prioritize vulnerabilities based on true business risk and how to best remediate them without wasting time or resources.

Download this whitepaper to learn why Credit Unions are finding value in context-based risk prioritization to help their cybersecurity programs, including:

• How to determine the actual threat landscape within your organization
• What the future of vulnerability prioritization looks like
• How to prioritize vulnerabilities with modern, contextual, risk-based frameworks
• Implementing additional tools to seal up risky vulnerabilities

After the mortgage industry experienced record volumes and margins over the course of 2020 and 2021, 2022 has been a different story. There has been nearly 200-basis points of increases in mortgage rates, rising home prices dissuading would-be buyers and cutbacks across companies in the mortgage industry. Despite the current environment, credit unions can squeeze every basis point from their best execution loan sale strategy. 

Download this white paper and learn:

• 6 ways to increase profitability right now
• Strategies that to add dozens of basis of points to your margins
• How to find guidance during market volatility

A personalized touch makes credit unions stand out in comparison to big banks, so having the data analytics in place to enable that is key. This case study explores how credit unions can perform quick analysis of underlying data, and allow senior management to increase the maturity of their departments and enable productivity. 

Download the case study and learn how becoming data-driven will enable your credit union to achieve next-level results, including:

• Enable employees to be proactive in a rising rate environment
• Better engagement with rate sensitive members having high deposits
• Managed deposit concentration risk 
• Dynamic dashboards for quick analysis
• Easy-to-use & drill-down for end users

Investing in data allows credit unions to be more profitable than ever. This guide explores the member lifecycle journey and how you can create additional value for your members faster, easier and more cost-effectively. 

Download the comprehensive guide and learn about:

• Measuring member lifetime value
• 5 stages of the analytics journey
• Understanding costs, pitfalls & challenges
• Driving ROI through data & predictive analytics
• 5 considerations to design your data analytics ecosystem
• And more! 

87% of small businesses consider it important to have a single provider for all their credit and banking services.* Your credit union’s success in becoming an all-in-one financial solution for your members is directly tied to the performance of your merchant provider.

Partnering with a third-party payments provider can increase member satisfaction, retention rates, and ultimately, keep your credit union competitive with larger institutions. Elavon, a leading payments provider and credit union merchant partner, shows an 88% increase in average revenue, an 85% increase in deposits, and an 80% increase in loans from businesses that use their credit union for merchant services versus those with only a checking account.

Download this white paper to learn more about the benefits of a strong merchant services partnership and ways to evaluate the right one. Also uncover: 

• What merchant services capabilities local businesses want and need
• Types of merchant provider models
• Criteria for evaluating a potential partner for merchant services

*Source: BlueVine, 2022

The current financial services landscape is changing at an accelerated pace that is putting many credit unions on the defense—reacting to member demands instead of anticipating challenges. Recent research also reveals that younger generations want more from their primary financial institution, and just 9% of millennials claim a credit union as their primary. Is your credit union positioned to respond quickly to the changing demands of younger generations?

Download the white paper and learn how to put your credit union on the offensive, including:

• 3 ways future-ready cores give credit unions an edge
• How to realize quick-to-market implementation of innovative solutions
• Creating new opportunities to drive revenue

Over 4 billion people are using smartphones for nearly every activity in life, including banking. The increased customer demand for mobile banking services carries increased fraud threats. Credit unions must wield this combination carefully to avoid fraud losses if they move too quickly or customer churn if they move too slowly.

How can credit unions find the right balance when it comes to mobile banking? Download this white paper that highlights:

• Current trends in mobile banking
• Fraud threats and consumer behavior that result in increased risk
• Strategies for preventing mobile banking fraud
• Anomaly detection for mobile banking

Mortgage pricing is a function of inputs including MBS prices, servicing valuations, guaranty fee levels, and buy-up/buy-down pricing provided by the GSEs. The element over which lenders exercise the most control is their profit margins, which they use both to tweak their profitability and control their volumes during periods of heavy origination activity. 

This white paper illustrates the processes involved in generating consumer loan offerings and intermediate loan prices, including: 

• 2 common misconceptions about the relationship between consumer loan pricing & capital market conditions
• How consumer loan pricing is calculated
• Cash flow allocation of loans
• Calculating coupon best-execution
• Creating a “pricing grid”
• Factors impacting pricing

Credit unions still have one key advantage over fintechs: inherited trust. Recent data revealed that more than 50% of respondents strongly trust traditional providers compared to 32% who said the same of fintechs.*

Download this white paper to learn how to stay competitive and expand your offerings. Inside you’ll find: 

• How to develop your brand and grow cardmember loyalty
• Which features your mobile app should include
• Opportunities for member engagement through financial education tools

As market participants adjust their capacity to lower volume, margins initially tighten, compounding the challenges of fewer refinance loans. There can be both discomfort and anticipation moving from one stage of the mortgage cycle to another, but mortgage lenders know to stay agile.

This white paper outlines how lenders should prepare for these cyclical changes and thrive in a dynamic mortgage market. Topics discussed include:

• MCT Rate & Volume Mortgage Model
• Right-Sized, Scalable Operation
• Efficient Processes and Technology
• Broad Liquidity and Fungibility
• Lender Focus Areas by Market Stage

Recent research shows that almost two-thirds of active credit card users value their cards for the ease and convenience they offer. However, providing simple convenience isn’t enough for issuers to stay ahead of their competitors. Issuers also need to focus on data security, rewards and privacy features to keep their cards top of wallet. 

Download this report and learn which customer experience features are driving credit card selection and usage, including:

• Top consumer experience features ranked by importance, family type and financial lifestyle
• 4 key findings about consumers today
• 5 credit industry fast facts
• Type of consumer who values credit-building functionality
• Top factors for consumers choosing a credit card
• How to offer effective customer experience features 

The Federal Reserve has indicated it will raise rates multiple times over the course of the year. This coupled with an overall decline in MBS appetite from an end-investor perspective will cause increased competition for loan sales which will drive down credit union profitability.

Download this white paper to learn key strategies for mitigating margin compression in 2022. Topics covered include:

• Tips for reviewing your current strategies
• How to hedge your pipeline to reduce risk
• 3 tactics to improve your secondary marketing 
• 6 ways to leverage technology and automation
• And more!

Chief Capital Markets Officer, Jeffrey Cassetta, of Ruoff Mortgage describes how advanced technology integrations enable him to sell loans to Fannie Mae five times faster than his previous manual process and keep up with periods of increased volume such as increases seen during the spring of 2020.

Download the case study to learn how a powerful platform for day-to-day loan pipeline management, trade positions management and best execution of loan sales can allow you to automate repetitive tasks and free up your time for other high-value functions. Plus, you’ll learn how to:

• Minimize operational risk and safely connect to data
• Gain efficiency 
• Increase profitability and loan sales
• Do your job from anywhere
• Get started using best practices

As a credit union, you have deep community roots, loyal membership, and are always looking to grow market share. One way to help your members get the best rate or price is by optimizing your investor set. With increases in mortgage pricing granularity over the last couple years, it may be time to consider looking at going beyond your current investor(s) to do right by your members.

Download this whitepaper and learn how to quantify where to deliver your production, the process for auditing your investor base, and how to optimize your investor set. Plus, you will also learn:

• How to review your loan sale delivery method
• Considerations for choosing the right investors
• Questions to ask when exploring new programs and investors
• What investors look for in a quality seller
• And more!

The costs associated with fee and interest income when running a credit card program may be more complicated than they seem, especially if the program is not optimized. 

Download this whitepaper to understand factors that can affect the profitability of your credit union’s credit card program, including:

• Profit margin pressures
• Interest income: WAAPR vs. Revolve Rate and Fixed vs. Variable Rate
• Costs of interest income
• Fee income: direct and interchange
• Overall effect of costs on profitability