On the sales side credit unions have knocked the firm for pulling a disappearing act. "Our feedback was CUNA Mutual is not hungry enough. 'Reps come see us, disappear, and don't follow up.'"

Post said CUNA Mutual has implemented a new sales process that stitches up gaps and makes rep visits to credit unions more regular. "Credit unions are very, very different and utilize CUNA Mutual in different ways. Some only need a bond product from us, others have 10 products. We have some flexibility in our pricing for people who have multiple products and a more efficient way to distribute products."

CUNA Mutual's change efforts are not just slick terms like distribution optimization, said Post, they are saving the company, and thus credit unions, money. By eliminating redundant staff, utilizing outsourcing, and other efforts, the company is seeing $16 million in annualized expense reductions. The downsizing of the 30 customer centers to three will result in $10 million in savings.

But it is not just about cutting costs, Post projects that its investment income will increase by $28 million this year as its funds under management are earning a much higher return. He attributes the increase to "right person, right job," one of his leadership mantras.

Right person, right job for investments means David Marks. Post brought in Marks, executive vice president/chief investments officer, last year. Marks has a long history with the Street and has a background with big financial players such as Citibank. "Part of it was we had not participated in some investment vehicles before because we didn't have the sophistication. Investment work is complex stuff, you need the right people. Right person, right job, right results, right now," said Post, who conceded technical investment changes are over his head, but he knows he has the right guy in place.

Add up the investment income, call center savings and expense reductions, and Post said credit unions can now see tangible benefits of all the changes at the company–to the tune of $54 million.

This makes CUNA Mutual a stronger company, but that's not enough, said Post. Now he is working with industry leaders to find out how credit unions can leverage CUNA Mutual to deal with pressing problems, namely lack of membership growth.

Post has thrown around big ideas in the past, such as helping credit unions get into more businesses with CUNA Mutual's 401(k) program, and thus helping the CU add members from those businesses. Or doing innovative things like offering laptop insurance for college students as a way to drive younger members.

One idea that has become a reality is its new crop insurance offering. It signed a deal with Producer's Ag Insurance Group to provide Multi-Peril Crop insurance to farmers and agriculture producers nationwide. Crop insurance is a $4 billion industry. It protects crops from natural causes like frost, wind, etc.

Is it a home run membership solution on its face? No, but Post said it could be a very important initiative. Not only can it help credit unions attract membership from farmers and ag producers, but it's no secret that there are thousands of migrant workers on America's farms–most of them unbanked. "To be able to go back to Congress and say we have all these workers out there and oh by the way the credit union movement through CUNA Mutual is not only serving America's farmers, we're helping these unbanked workers." The Plastic Problem

So far the issues that have been covered are ones that CUNA Mutual has driven, but Post has spent a lot of his tenure dealing with a problem that was thrust upon the company–plastic card fraud.

Post is lauded for bringing the fraud problem to the forefront. He's addressed it at credit union conferences, flown all around the country meeting with credit union leaders about it and is working closely with the trade associations on finding solutions. What many may not know is CUNA Mutual is working out this problem with lawmakers. Post and his team have met with congressional committees a number of times to keep the spotlight on the issue. He has also essentially called out Visa for not doing enough to bring America's plastic card technologies up to speed with the rest of the world.

Plastic card fraud has hammered CUNA Mutual's bottom line. Post has not been shy about telling credit unions that the company is paying out more in claims than it is taking in, and started publicizing loss figures about a year ago. They are lofty. This year it is expecting between $100-$110 in losses, below its original projection of $120 million. Some good things are happening.

"In the last three months, losses have been below the level they were at first quarter, so that's good, but we want to see that continue. And there are ebbs and flows in fraud loss, like around Christmas."

CUNA Mutual has aggressively pursued a suit against B.J.'s Wholesalers, who held on to data that was compromised and caused losses to credit unions and banks alike.

As for a legislative fix, Post believes the best thing that can happen is for Congress to set some higher standards. "At a minimum, establish federal standards for credit cards. They start with chip and PIN. Standards need to be in place. There are a lot of establishments in Europe that won't even take a U.S. credit card any more because when you hand them a credit card that just has a mag stripe they can't believe that's all it has."

There were some fears in the industry that with all of Post's focus on the losses, that the company was setting up to drop plastic card coverage. That didn't happen and won't happen said Post, but CUNA Mutual has asked credit unions to share in the costs. The company has pushed through rate hikes on plastic card coverage in all states (except Georgia, which is in the works), with the average CU paying 180% more.

"We're not pricing it for profit, we're pricing it for break even. What they [credit unions] are asking me is to 'charge us what you need to charge us. We'll figure out how to pay the premium, just don't take the coverage away.'" Changing Hierarchy

One of the first places Post saw the need for organizational change when he took over was the management ranks–it was too flat for him.

"We went from 300 officers to about 80. My direct reports went from 18 to seven. This eliminates the number of decision-making layers, and gives more speed to market."

The personnel changes have been many (see sidebar), but more are coming. "We have gone through a massive upgrade in talent. We're not done yet. We still have a number of product positions to fill," he said.

Is Post fitting in to the credit union system? He came from a big-time insurance firm, Fireman's Fund, out in California that didn't serve a tight-knit industry like credit unions. "If I didn't love it, I wouldn't be putting my heart into it. I like it a lot. It's been a year and three-quarters that's flown by. I feel like I made a lot of good friends. I am getting excited. We're starting to see some of the benefits of change, not only financial, but for credit unions," he said. –[email protected]