Is Your Credit Union Prepared for a Data Breach Event?
…The Odds are Against You as Thieves Get More Sophisticated. We are experiencing the worst year in history for data breaches in the United States. Since the beginning of 2014, when Target department stores had announced one the largest breach events ever, there has been a significant increase in incidents, with a major breach now occurring on…
Achieving Sustainable Loan Growth (Part 1)
Framing the Problem For every credit union that has invested heavily in its lending process, there are plenty more who haven’t. Ok, most haven’t. This is surprising considering the majority of a credit union’s earnings are loan-related and most strive to deliver a quality member experience. This may also be why our industry struggles to…
The Key to Great Analysis for Credit Unions
One of the roadblocks we often see with credit unions is that they do not have quality data that is necessary for the analysis process. The key is to incorporate data management strategies that ensure a credit union has quality data for analysis. Data management and analysis is not contained in a single job function. …
Shifting into Second: The Future of Driving Auto Loans (Part 2)
The notion of a buying service has been around for some time, generally in the form of an auto broker who negotiates a price on the consumer’s behalf, in exchange for a broker fee either built into the purchase price of the vehicle or charged separately for the service. While the traditional broker model still…
Capitalizing on Business Intel & Portfolio Management For Loan Growth
Over the last 18 months, credit unions have experienced healthy loan growth, and have seen loss and delinquency ratios decline. Is it because credit unions are doing a better job of lending than prior to the recession? One could argue that these simple metrics, while quite popular, do not tell the entire story. So, before…
Shifting into Second: The Future of Driving Auto Loans (Part 1)
For the auto industry, the Road to Purchase has shifted radically. Today, most shoppers take several months to go from the initial decision to buy a car, to the ultimate action of buying one, taking full advantage of research tools and other resources throughout their digital journey, much more heavily than ever seen in the…
Responding to Members’ Fears About Data Breach & ID Theft
Over the last year, the number of high-profile data breach events has escalated. Companies ranging from Target, eBay, and AT&T, to Marriott, Hilton, Coca Cola, PF Chang’s, and others, have been effected by data breaches, so it is not surprising to learn that consumers – some of whom include your individual credit union members –…
Increasing Loan Portfolio Profitability is About More Than Reducing Losses
In the book, “Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights,” author Gary Klein points out that many organizations focus on reducing errors to increase performance, but few focus on new insights. His argument is that true performance improvement requires the opportunity for both. As consumer lending continues to be highly competitive for…
How Credit Score Migration Analysis Can Identify Opportunities, Mitigate Losses
Most credit unions use a credit score to decision and price loan applications. In fact, in many cases the credit score is used as the primary factor in credit and pricing decisions. Therefore, since the score is such an important factor, it stands to reason that we should have a good understanding of what it…
Auto Buying Demand Improves, Hits Pre-Recession Levels
By Jose Torres, Senior Business Analyst, CU Direct New and used November YTD auto sales figures are 8.3% and 3.6%, respectively, above 2012 levels, and if these trend holds up, the auto industry is on target to record 57.7 million units in sales in 2013; a level not seen since 2007. New and used vehicle…