Strategy and business development speaker resources
U.S. economic outlook & its impact on credit unions
The U.S. economy is experiencing historic demand and supply shocks leading to the highest inflation in 40 years. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates at the fastest pace in 40 years. What will higher interest rates do to the economy in 2023 and beyond? Are fundamental changes in the jobs market apt to cause long-term labor shortages and wage pressures? Explore the possible paths of the economy and what impact it will have on credit union balance sheets and income statements for the next two years.
Speaker: Steven Rick, Director, Chief Economist
2023 economic & financial market outlook: is gravity back?
After the 2008 financial crisis, fiscal and monetary authorities influenced the economy in ways that were formerly left to market forces. The general level of interest rates and the shape of the yield curve became byproducts of policy decisions. Negative real interest rates were manufactured by central banks during an unprecedented period of quantitative easing, and the COVID pandemic dramatically amplified the distortion. Then came a game changer: inflation! Policymakers are now reversing course with historically aggressive interest rate hikes and quantitative tightening. Markets have also regained some of their prior influence, increasing the chance that gravitational pull from positive real interest will change the long-term trajectory of the economy.
Will gravity from higher interest rates cause a recession or will the economy remain resilient? Will financial markets rally or be dragged lower? Could increased cost of capital make corporate profitability more difficult to achieve? How could the return of gravity redistribute wealth in society?
Serving affluent multicultural consumers
With longstanding and stark wealth disparities across racial/ethnic groups in the U.S., it is easy to generalize this for all households within a particular group. However, data tells us that the fastest growing affluent households (those making over $100k) are not necessarily those traditional families you might think. Who is accumulating wealth? What are they looking for from financial service firms and advisors? What are their product preferences? Walk away with insights that will make you reconsider how multicultural consumers are changing the socio-economic landscape behind the scenes.
What Matters Now™: insights from CUNA Mutual Group’s 2022 multicultural and multigenerational financial needs and behaviors study
Developing a successful multicultural business strategy (MCBS) can be challenging for credit union leaders. A deep understanding of your membership and communities through a multicultural and mutigenerational lens can help. Through an exploration of our 2022 What Matters Now research report, gain data, insights and action steps to help you understand the motivations, struggles, hopes and dreams of people across race, ethnicity and generation. The report was developed with a credit union focus and includes contributions from nearly 10,000 multicultural and multigenerational participants across the country, all with the goal of helping you advance your MCBS to better serve your members and surrounding communities.
Recovering and leaping with multicultural consumers
The last few years accentuated the racial and socioeconomic disparities that continue to exist in our country, exposing the ugly truth about these historic inequalities.
Review the insights from CUNA Mutual’s Multicultural Center of Expertise (MCOE) on what they've discovered over the last three years to better serve our underserved consumers and grow together.
Understanding the Hispanic housing market opportunity
By 2030, 56% of first-time homebuyers will be Hispanic. Regardless of where your credit union is located, it's likely that by 2030 at least a segment of your members will be Hispanic. Consumers from different races and ethnicities face different family dynamics, systemic biases and financial hurdles. Understanding those challenges — specifically those from the Hispanic market — will help your credit union to better empathize and connect with those consumers, ultimately earning their trust and referrals for your products and services. Come find the answer to questions such as: What is driving this demographic growth and which disparities are getting in the way? Which loan products will see the highest demand and opportunity? What does the affluent Hispanic segment look like?
Starting an organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) journey
Don’t know where to start a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion journey? There is not one right way to do it. Every organization will develop its own unique path but there are key concepts and approaches that will create sustainable and impactful DEI efforts. Learn about CUNA Mutual Group’s 3-pillar approach: DEI is centering equity in our workforce, markets, and community. In the session we will review core concepts that are essential to launching DEI efforts. Additionally, we will discuss the changing demographics in the U.S. and how understanding identity plays a critical role in establishing an intentional multicultural business strategy. Finally, we will explore a number of case studies that demonstrate how DEI efforts translate into community impact and bottom-line results for the organization.
Credit union roadmap to fintech partnerships
Strategic fintech partnerships can open the door for credit union growth like increased loan volume, accelerated time to market, enhanced member experience, improved productivity, and more. However, finding and vetting the right partner for your credit union requires significant effort and diligence. Gain tips for building and maintaining successful fintech partnerships.
How embedded finance is shaping financial services
Embedded finance is changing when, where, and how people interact with financial services. The market is growing rapidly, generating over $20 billion of revenues across payments, lending, banking, and cards and projected to expand to $51 billion by 2026. While credit unions face the threat of disintermediation with the new embedded finance value chain, it also poses a tremendous growth opportunity. Learn firsthand the ways embedded finance meets the needs of members today and how credit unions can identify the verticals that allow them entry into this new value chain to expand their reach.
Accelerating loan growth through fintech partnerships
With fintechs attracting consumers due to their ease and convenience — it’s really no surprise that credit unions are turning to fintech partners to help grow their loan portfolio. Additionally, fintech partnerships can help members save time, money and make better financial decisions without having to ramp up credit union staffing or expensive infrastructure. This panel will highlight the unique perspectives from a credit union leader and fintechs who are working towards building successful and sustainable partnerships.
Panel Speaker(s): Credit Union Leader; Fintech Founder; CMFG Ventures Leader
Driving automation and personalization through fintech partnerships
Providing a dynamic, personal experience while developing an omnichannel strategy can be challenging. Members expect to be able to interact with their credit union 24/7 while receiving highly customized offerings and interactions. Learn about solutions like marketing communication platforms and conversational AI that allow your credit union to deliver and maintain personal connections that drive ROI and improve efficiencies.
Panel Speaker(s): Credit Union Leader; Fintech Founder; CMFG Ventures Leader
Driving financial inclusion through fintech partnerships
The demographics of consumers are shifting. Over the last five years, multicultural consumers accounted for 100% of U.S. population growth and 61% of credit union member growth. Millennial and Gen Z consumers represent the largest segment of the U.S. workforce. Yet despite the growth in these demographics, the racial and generational wealth gaps are only widening. And the majority of Americans are less financially literate and more financially insecure than ever before. How can credit unions support the needs of their diverse membership bases and make sure they are financially inclusive? Dive deeper into the evolving financial needs of consumers and hear about fintechs and credit unions who are working together to erase inequalities.
Panel Speaker(s): Credit Union Leader; Fintech Founder; CMFG Ventures Leader
Learn how Momnt enables financial inclusion while providing accesses to new customers and differentiated markets
Embedded finance enables customers to access financial products or services in a nonfinancial customer experience, journey, or platform. These digital interfaces develop a new type or relationship with financial providers and create a new field of potential members for credit unions. According to TransUnion,1 fintech loans comprise 41 percent of all unsecured personal loan balances, up from 5 percent of outstanding balances in 2013. During that same period, the credit union market share for unsecured personal loan balances declined from 31 percent in 2013 to 21 percent in 2021.2 As one of the biggest and fastest growing sources of loans in the marketplace, embedded finance is particularly important for attracting a new generation of credit union members who are young, mobile, and online. Learn how your credit union can partner with Momnt to provide the catalyst for financial inclusion, new members, and increased loans.
Speaker: Barclay Keith, CEO of Momnt; Chris Bracken, CRO; Kevin DeCesaris, Director of Capital Markets
The power of permissioned data in lending
Permissioned data is detailed, highly descriptive of member's financial behavior, but requires members to give access. While this data can be broken into known categories like income, debt, and identity, it also includes cash flows, payments, and more. Today, there is an overwhelming amount of permissioned data coming from many different sources. Credit unions must use this data to make better, faster, and fairer decisions in consumer and business lending, but struggle to identify the right data sources, implement the APIs, and use this data to make decisions. This session will provide a digestible overview of these data categories, use cases, and best practices from credit unions who are approving and funding more deposit, loan, and credit applications and reaching new members.
Speaker: Gopal Swamy, Founder & CEO of Conductiv Inc. (CMFG Ventures Portfolio Company)
Love it or list it: the growing trend of home renovations and credit union’S important role
With record low inventory, an aging housing stock, and decade high mortgage rates, homeowner’s are facing one of the most difficult housing markets ever. As a result, many homeowners are now considering updating their existing home to accommodate their growing needs, instead of selling and moving to a new home. The challenge, however, is a serious lack of options to finance larger home renovations. Learn more about the changing housing market and the important role credit unions can play in helping homeowners renovate their homes.
Speaker: Lee Miller, Founder & President; Austin Wentzlaff, Business Development
Recapture in a raising interest environment
Recapture and refinancing pose a significant challenge in a rising interest environment. Loans that consumers got even 9 / 12 / 18 months ago were at lower interest rate levels. Consumers are more rate-sensitive than ever which has shifted their mindsets. We are now seeing consumers explore refinancing immediately after getting a loan because the rates they got on their original loans are perceived to be disproportionately high. The good news is consumers are comparing the structurally lower credit union rates with commercial lenders rates — this is where you will gain members and movement! This session will focus on how to successfully recapture debt in a rising interest environment. Clutch can help turn your credit union into a fintech, helping members and nonmembers apply for auto loans, personal loans and credit cards.
Speaker: Nicholas Hinrichsen, Founder & CEO of Clutch (CMFG Ventures Portfolio Company)
How do I get my tech partners to integrate with each other?
"If you want to go fast, go alone! If you want to go far, go together!" This famous quote is fitting for a variety of different aspects in life, including the fintech world. Your main software products — i.e. your core, your LOS, your online banking providers, etc. — are all owned by private equity companies. To maximize shareholder return, companies charge for integrations. New technology upstarts choose a very different approach: these young and innovative companies combine efforts and help each other along the way to be most valuable. If startups like us show up together, we are bigger and can go further. This session will go into more depth on how to choose software products that seamlessly integrate with each other to give credit unions a unique advantage. Credit unions that embrace partnerships with upcoming software companies will outgrow and outperform their peers.
Speaker: Nicholas Hinrichsen, Founder & CEO of Clutch and Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI (CMFG Ventures Portfolio Companies)
How to get the most out of AI decisioning
One of the most commonly expressed opportunities for credit unions are finding efficiency gains in the consumer loan underwriting process. In today's world people crave and prioritize speed and simplicity. Everything we do today, can be done at our fingertips and with a few clicks. Instant gratification is the name of the game. The same is true for loan applications as well: the easier we make it for members to get a new loan or refinance an existing one, the more they're going to use your loan products and the more loyal they are. By applying the best practices from fintech to your lending process, credit unions could dominate consumer lending. AI speeds up underwriting, reduces the cost to produce a consumer loan and improves your member experience. This session will go into more depth on how to implement AI most successfully and how to leverage AI to provide FinTech-like member experiences.
Speaker: Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI (CMFG Ventures Portfolio Company)
How to acquire Gen Z customers
Join the CEO & co-founder of Frich, a social finance app for Gen Z, to learn the fintech industry insights and member acquisition strategies to help your credit union attract the next generation.
Speaker: Katrin Kaurov, Founder & CEO of Frich (CMFG Ventures Portfolio Company)