Commentary

Using my credit union's home banking service recently, I transferred money from checking to pay a credit union car loan. The system immediately reflected my checking withdrawal, loan payment, and new checking and loan balances. Two days later I paid my mortgage the same way. Problem is, the mortgage payment...

Who wants it? No one. Who needs it? Every credit union. Collateral protection is an insurance product that protects lenders and sometimes borrowers from loss in the event of damage to collateral. A well-run collateral protection program ensures good relationships with members and minimizes the risk of lawsuits alleging false...

Right now, your credit union is probably scrambling to enact policies and procedures to comply with the new Customer Identification Procedures (CIP). In addition, you are beginning to change your data collection processes to comply with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) amendments effective January 1, 2004. The last thing...

Technology has revolutionized worldwide communications and the manner and speed in which we transact business in our professional and personal lives. It has also provided new and fertile opportunities for criminals to commit acts of thievery on unsuspecting individuals and businesses. Until a couple of years ago, technology breaches at...

The unfortunate fact about those nice homes your members live in is they most likely got their mortgage money from somebody other than you. It's time to change that. Last year, credit unions originated a meager 2.5% of all first mortgage. Also consider that 48% of member households have a...

While credit unions have created ancillary organizations to both unite and promote the system throughout their almost 100 year history, over the past 10 years a new segment of organizations has emerged to serve credit unions. These are CUSO's, owned by multiple credit unions, serving local, regional and sometimes national...

E-mail marketing is fast becoming an integral component in the overall delivery channel mix for credit union marketers. So what's all this buzz about, anyway? E-mail marketing is cheaper and faster .... but is it better? With the average consumer getting 110 junk e-mails per week (Source: Forrester Research 2003),...

Since the elimination of private share insurance was raised several months back, it has sparked considerable discussion within the credit union movement, as reflected in the op-ed and letters pages of Credit Union Times. While it is heartening to see that many of your readers (and online poll-takers) share CUNA's...