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There’s $140 billion in unclaimed federal benefits and assistance for households in need.

That’s a mountain of money.

Why is it unclaimed? Sometimes it’s because folks just don’t know it exists. Often it’s because the process of applying for it can be daunting - especially for the people who need it most.

Enter Starlight, a New York based startup helmed by Catherine Xu and Shreenath Regunathan, both tech geeks.

Starlight’s aim is to catalog the available monies, make a database that’s easy to search and create tools to make it easy to apply for monies.

What’s in it for credit unions? Think about it. Help a member find monies that will let that member live better and move up the economic ladder and at least two things happen: the member will have strengthened loyalty to the credit union that assisted and that member also may qualify for more credit union products, maybe a car loan or a credit card.

How cool is that?

Four credit unions already are signed up, more are in the queue and TruStage (nee CUNA Mutual) is an investor.

This conversation started back at the CU 2.0 live event in Phoenix that co founder Cat Hu attended and it had to become a podcast because it blends geekiness with doing social good.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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Call this podcast what you think you know about SERPs but that’s not fact.

Two truths are plain: senior credit union executives want to secure their retirement much as their for profit sector peers do AND there just is a lot of confusion about SERPs - supplemental retirement plans.

A big reason for this show is that in it Kirk Kordelesi, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the nation’s largest, and now a partner with PARC Street, shines a bright light on how split dollar, whole life SERPs work and how they differ from IUL plans, Index Universal Life.

A bottomline difference is that a split dollar SERP will produce a stable return whereas there is structural variability built into the results an IUL will produce.

Find out more about that in this webinar with expert Bobby Samuelson and PARC Street Partners.

Dive deeper into what Kordeleski has said about executive retirement plans in credit unions in the two dozen plus podcasts we’ve recorded. Consider this must listening for credit union c-suiters, board members, and also executive recruiters.

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On any list of my personal favorite CU 2.0 podcasts is episode 149 - it dropped May 2021 - with Samira Rajan, CEO of the Brooklyn Cooperative, a small, scrappy credit union.

How did a Bryan Mawr graduate - who also has a master’s from Harvard's Kennedy School - wind up in Bushwick at a tiny credit union?

She started there in 2001 as a volunteer and these many years later she’s the CEO.

Hers is a brilliant credit union story.

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Fraud - there’s your five letter word for today and inside many credit unions it’s counted as a curse.

Fraud also is in the midst of an AI driven revolution. Fraudsters - just as you are - are harnessing AI tools to get smarter, faster, better.

On the show today is Sara Seguin, principal adviser, fraud and identity risk at Alloy, a provider to more than 500 banks, fintechs and credit unions.

In the show we discuss what’s new in fraud and fraud defenses -- and the headline is that 52% of FIs told Alloy that fraud attempts on consumer accounts were up. There’s also sharp growth in fraud regarding business accounts where, often, losses are larger.

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Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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Jennifer Oliver wants to tell you about Rize where the tagline is Beyond Banking. That’s an Irwindale CA based billion dollar institution - formerly SCE Credit Union - but Oliver says that even when she interviewed for the job she already was thinking about a name change.

SCE, by the way, stands for Southern California Edison, a big electric utility. In the show Oliver explains why she thought the name had to change.

But, importantly, this is more than a name change. Oliver, Rize's CEO, also has put the institution on a rebranding journey where the mission becomes ending poverty.

A big idea? You bet. Here’s how Rize explains its mission and name change: “To better serve our members, we recognized the need for growth, which was challenging with our previous name. Many people don't know what a credit union is or mistakenly believe they must work for a specific company to join ours. We sought a name that eliminates that confusion and aligns with our mission, vision and values. We believe our new name will enhance our ability to serve current members, expand our reach, and allow us to make an even greater impact for our members and our communities."

She’s undertaking a big mission? You bet but on her way to this job Oliver put in a stint as executive vice president of Municipal Credit Union after NCUA conserved it. That happened after its CEO was arrested and later convicted for multi million dollar embezzlement and he was sentenced to a jail sentence. This was a big ugly blot on the reputation of all credit unions - and Oliver accepted the challenge to help remove the stain and keep Municipal functioning. The conservatorship team succeeded. Municipal is out of conservatorship and it still serves New York’s city employees.

So if you think Oliver is taking on a huge problem, remember she’s a veteran of the Municipal salvation.

Sprinkled through the show are many good ideas she has for helping credit unions prosper. Here’s just one: she’s created a pathway to enable foster kids to open accounts without the signature of an adult. So the money the kid earns and may receive from the state is his or hers. Getting this together needed thinking way outside of boxes - but she did it.

And talk about our backpages she was a guest on this show in 2019, episode 2. There’s a link in the show notes.

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Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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There are some CEOs you just like. Kent Lugrand, CEO of InTouch Credit Union, is one such and, with him, he has a personal story about his winding path to becoming CEO of a large credit union that will just get you.

One of the pleasures of doing this podcast is that I get to throw a spotlight on unique credit union people who help make the industry different.

This is one.

The interview was recorded about two years ago.

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Martin Walker is the man to know if you are a fintech looking for credit union related venture funding and he also is the man to know if you are a credit union looking to invest in fintechs.

On LinkedIn Walker’s tag line is Investing in Fintechs that Enable Credit Unions.

That pretty much says it.

Walker and I started talking at the June CU 2.0 Live event in Fountain Hills AZ and that conversation led to this show.

In the show Walker tells fintechs what they need to know and do to snare an investment from Curql - hint: a credit union nexus is a sine qua non - and he also tells credit unions a new fund investment round has opened and is looking for a few more investors.

These efforts are critical. To continue to thrive credit unions need to keep upping their technology game. Period.

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Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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Probably you think a book titled Community Capital has to be a snoozefest.

And then there’s the new book with that title written by Clifford Rosenthal and Michael McCray and it’s a book that will rock you and your beliefs about NCUA, African American focused credit unions and more.

The book splits into two parts. There’s Rosenthal’s part where he looks at the struggles of smaller community based crest unions - he served as CEO of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions (now Inclusiv) for almost 30 years. He also put in a stint at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He also has been a guest on the podcast, episode 37 back in 2019.

And know that although Rosenthal documents the struggles of small community development credit unions, recent developments at the federal level have left him sounding downright optimistic.

Then there’s Michael McCray’s part of the book, which documents what he sees as NCUA’s systematic destruction of the Kappa Alpha Psi Credit Union, the country’s first virtual credit union. Kappa Alpha Psi is an historic African American fraternity and the credit union did not go down without a fight.

Note: there are a few minor audio problems early in the podcast - crackling sounds that technology didn't filter out. But the words are always audible and the content is compelling.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto