Friday, March 11

          9:15 AM

2021 Market Outlook: What to Expect in the Post-Pandemic Adjustment Period

COVID-19 brought out the best and worst of the global economy. The pandemic caused the lowest unemployment rate in fifty years to quickly spike to the highest rate in ninety years. The implosion led to a burst of crisis-response money printing and stimulus payments to affected businesses and individuals. But human ingenuity is once again set to prevail with warp-speed development of an effective vaccine. A post-pandemic adjustment period will soon follow, impacting investors’ portfolios across the risk spectrum for years to come. During this session, the pandemic’s impact on the structure of the economy and its influence on financial markets will be discussed in simple, entertaining terms. Special emphasis will be placed on the outlook for savers and investors.

Scott D. Knapp

CFA®, Managing Principal

CUNA Mutual Fiduciary Consultants

Delivering on a Digital Member Experience in a Member-first World

Does disruption scare you? What does it mean to you? Are you making the most out of your digital partner relationships? In this presentation, CU Engage will take a deep dive into delivering on a digital member experience in a member-first world. We will discuss how digital disruption is affecting the payments space today and what financial institutions can do to stay on the top of their game to retain and gain customers.

Key Takeaways:

• how digital disruptions is affecting the payments space
• forces of change in the member experience
• the importance of a payments strategy

Lizzy Shebanek

Industry Analyst

CU Engage

Omni-Channel Communication for Credit Unions

Digital communication is more important than ever. Eltropy enables Credit Unions to digitally communicate with members in a secure and compliant way. Using Eltropy’s omni-channel, enterprise-wide communications solution, lending, collections, sales, marketing, contact center and other teams at your Credit Union can leverage digital communication to increase member engagement and receive relevant member insights via analytics.

Jim Cairns

Vice President of Customer Success

Eltropy

          10:30 AM

Are your members satisfied? Connecting with your members so they can connect with you

How do you know if your members are truly satisfied with their credit union experience? Data has shown that satisfied members lead to repeat business and future recommendations, which in turn, have a bottom-line impact. There’s a catch however, the only way to effectively leverage and improve member experience is to start with the proper methodology to measure and understand it.
In this session we will review:
• why member satisfaction is important and how to measure it effectively
• how to leverage the satisfaction drivers that actually make up member experience
• the continued relevance of branch locations
• how the disparity between member intentions and behavior can affect your bottom line
• why you should show interest in your members’ financial well-being

Mark Galauner

Financial Services Program Director

CFI Group

Cloudy with 100% chance of vulnerabilities. Who do you trust?

With daily security hacks at companies of all sizes, where do you begin? To build a comprehensive information security program, you can purchase dozens of tools and programs and pay thousands of dollars and the bad guys easily bypass them all with a single click. A layered, easy to understand program must begin with regular, engaging and interactive security awareness training for all employees. But it isn’t enough just to train your employees, you also must develop and maintain a comprehensive third party security program.

We all use third parties in some fashion to assist our members but how do we verify that they are protecting our sensitive member information? Instead of trying to invent processes and procedures to address each area, why not follow an industry recognized framework? In this session we will discuss how you can quickly and effectively use the pillars in the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to build the foundation for a solid program. These pillars map to the FFIEC requirements and can grow from baseline to innovative based on your board’s preference. Identifying your critical systems and applications; Protecting these systems from unauthorized access; Detecting malicious activity; Responding to cyber events and Recovering from downtime. If you can only improve or implement one of these security capabilities per quarter, this can dramatically change your maturity. Remember, the bad guys go where security is the weakest, protecting yourself and your members doesn’t have to be expensive, instead, focus on the basics so that you can spend your resources growing and investing in your members.

Eric Isham

CEO

Omnicommander

Dominating your Member Experience

Is your credit union positioned to remain relevant and significant with your members AND potential members? The pace of change in technology, member expectations, employee expectations, and competition will ensure that only those credit unions that can meet these challenges will survive.

In the session, “Dominating your Member Experience,” you will learn:

• Why Leadership and Organizational Transparency are a foundation for success
• Creating a Healthy Culture is easier than you think.
• Five critical steps you can take back to your credit union that will separate your teams from the pack.

Taylor Murray                                  Michael Neill

Chief Executive Officer                  Executive Director

ServiStar Consulting                      ServiStar Consulting

          11:30 AM

Hot Topics in Commercial Lending

Commercial Lending is a never ending sea of change, and whether you are considering adding commercial loans to the services you offer your membership, or are trying to keep up with everything going on, this session will provide useful and timely information on getting started and on what to expect from the post pandemic economy, regulatory changes, the constant changes in loan examinations and the impact on your portfolio.

Mark Cox

President & CEO

Innovative Business Solutions

When Should Credit Unions Say “I Do” To Vendors?

It is no secret that C-level executives are continually courted by vendors. Unlike grooms and brides to be, however, executives cannot place the wants and needs of their customers/members and employees on a “good faith” proposal. Rather, they need contractual language that will deliver exactly what the vendor promises. And while many executives know “some” of the questions to ask, rarely do they know “all” the questions to query.

Whether a core conversion, online banking or credit card conversion, executives can benefit from partnering with consultants whose intent and strategy is to work with subject matter experts—vendors—to ensure that workflow processes and procedures are executed properly.

The purpose of this presentation is to determine when a financial institution should say “yes” to the vendor proposal. In certain cases, existing contracts are either nearing expiration or the vendor is creating difficulties, which requires consultant “counseling.” To this end, executives, along with consultants, share vendor contract experiences as well as lessons learned and best practices. The goal is to have financial institution executives celebrate conversion anniversaries. The alternative is a lose-lose proposition for all involved, especially the Credit Union’s valued members.

Adam Denbo

Managing Consultant

Samaha & Associates, Inc.

Leveraging Culture and Risk to Improve Strategic Planning

The business world has become more complex, interconnected, and, well, risky over the last several decades. The proliferation of technology – a digital transformation – has drastically altered the way organizations operate and connect with their constituents, impelling business leadership to achieve an appropriate risk vs. reward balance in order to compete effectively.

A wide-array of for-profit entities – e.g. banks, FinTechs, non-financial institutions offering financial services, etc. – have targeted our membership, utilizing their deep pockets and broad reach to steer them towards an all-digital experience. All the while, credit unions face unprecedented risk daily with excess liquidity balances, compressed interest rates, talent attrition, regulatory change, cybersecurity concerns, unreliable partnerships, pandemics, and more.

As an industry, how, then, do we ensure our relevance outlasts our ability to remain solvent? How can we stay true to ourselves and our membership, swiping away the challenges (yet, embracing the opportunities), while still achieving our intended purpose? One way is to embrace the intrinsic linkage between culture, risk, and strategy.

During this session, attendees will walk away with a better understanding of the importance of aligning culture and risk prior to the development and approval of your next strategic plan.

Jeff Dato

EVP & Chief Operating Officer

Volunteer Corporate Credit Union (VolCorp)

          1:15 PM

Redefining the retail-branch experience post Covid

In an ultra-competitive financial environment, Credit Unions need to rethink their member journey. Our vision includes a balanced blend of expert human capital and modern technology to deliver an exceptional experience.

does your physical space align with your brand?

We design, build, and remodel facilities, develop brand identity, select markets and sites, and implement messaging and merchandising strategies across your financial network. The results? Enhanced customer and member loyalty, more efficient operations, and increased profitability.

Nate Baldasaro

Co-founder

Element

How Predictive Analytics Can Help Financial Institutions                Manage Risk

As the United States begins to emerge from the pandemic, financial institutions will face new risks during an uncertain and unpredictable economic recovery. Potential credit losses, delinquency trends, concentration risk, and credit migration trends will need to be closely monitored, which is best achieved through enhanced reporting efficiency, predictive insights, and stronger portfolio visibility. This gives FIs a clearer understanding of different segments within their portfolio and how they are changing so they can deliver the right insights to the right stakeholder at the right time

In this session, we’ll share how a single platform that combines onboarding, loan origination, account opening, and retail loan analytics empowers institutions to infuse analytics into every major decision related to driving revenue, controlling costs, operating more efficiently, minimizing risk, and preparing for regulatory requirements.

Key Takeaways:

• Attendees will understand the unique benefits a single platform offers financial institutions with the addition of retail loan analytics.
• Attendees will learn how utilizing insightful predictive analytics can enhance risk management throughout the loan life cycle.
• Attendees will gain insight to operational and strategic opportunities available through robust analytical tools to surface data, build reporting efficiencies and manage risk.

Cassidy Burrows

Manager – Support Engineering

nCino

Loan Participation Market Update

A lot has changed in the Loan Participation Market over the last few years. Credit Unions have faced falling and persistently low market rates, been inundated with deposits, managed through a pandemic and dealt with declining loan growth. There have been material changes to supply and demand in the participation market as well as some new loan products trading. As Credit Unions navigate what is next, we’ll provide an update on trends we are seeing in lending and participations, how various loan types are performing and how Credit Unions can position themselves to take advantage of market opportunities when they arise. Whether you are a buyer, seller or neither, understanding what is happening and playing in the loan participation market can unlock solutions to better manage your institution.

David Visinsky

Senior Vice President

Vining Sparks

          2:30 PM

Faster Payments – Mapping Out Your Future!

Faster payments have you confused? We understand; there’s a lot out there!

Being strategic about payments means shifting from a reactive to a proactive stance, which can be challenging in an environment of rapid technological change. As “faster” becomes “real-time,” a well-developed payments strategy is critical to the success of your institution and your members. Join us to make sure the most critical components are included in your payments strategy!

Lisa Coffey

Chief Innovations Officer

Corporate America Credit Union

CECL – What You Actually Need to Know – A Practical Discussion

What exactly is CECL and what will the implementation look like? Get an update on the current environment and hear about some implementation timeline and plan ideas. In addition, learn some key considerations in planning and developing CECL for your credit union. Make sure you are developing the solution that is RIGHT for YOUR credit union.

Jeffrey Johnson

Senior Analyst

Mark H. Smith, Inc.

Interactions vs. Transactions: The Right Mix of Technology and People to Connect Channels, Reduce Costs, and Enhance the Branch Experience

World events accelerated consumer adoption of digital, self-service, and video technologies and spurred innovation projects within financial institutions. Similar to retail, consumers now expect their institution to offer “anywhere, anytime” access and speedy decisioning. With member expectations raised and fee-income and staffing under duress, shifting mundane transactions to 24/7 self-service reduces transaction costs and frees up branch staff to focus on more complex, advisory related transactions.

In this session, we’ll address how blending the right mix of technology and people can optimize branch staffing models, connect the physical and online channels, expedite transactions, reduce operational costs, and most importantly, improve member experience.

Sean Farrell

Chief Executive Officer

QDS