Send us Fan Mail

The CUInsight headline caught my eye: “Why credit unions must step up as financial stabilizers to rebuild consumer confidence.”

The piece was authored by Dave Buerger, CEO of Union Credit and, before that, he was CEO of CuneXus, where he was a co-founder.

At Union Credit the mission is delivering 1-click, perpetual loans to credit union members. 70+ credit unions are Union Credit customers and a key to Union Credit’s business is that it memberizes non members in a very few minutes.

What triggered Buerger’s piece is a consumer confidence survey commissioned by Union Credit that found that consumer confidence is shaky indeed.

Take aways from the survey are: “Only 12.5% feel very confident about their finances. The majority are in the middle with 57% rating themselves a 3 or 4 out of 5…. 54% are feeling cautious, 45% anxious, and 30% overwhelmed.”

No wonder many institutions are experiencing a slowing loan volume.

Buerger believes credit unions can take steps to strengthen consumer confidence,

Buerger wrote in CUInsight: “Consumers are pressing pause, not stop. They’re delaying major financial decisions because they don’t feel safe committing before they understand their options. Yet 36% told us they would still move forward with financing if the offer felt secure and transparent. That gap between hesitation and action is where credit unions have both a responsibility and an opportunity.”

In the show today he elaborates on these thoughts

Buerger is optimistic but realistic as well.

And he firmly believes that Union Credit’s tools can help credit unions improve their loan volumes,

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

Send us Fan Mail

Agentic AI. Google’s Gemini explains what this means: “Agentic AI represents a shift from AI that simply 'talks' to AI that 'does.' While previous iterations of AI were primarily reactive—answering questions or generating text when prompted—Agentic AI systems are proactive. They can reason, plan, and execute multi-step tasks autonomously to achieve a specific goal."

Agentic AI is the hot topic in AI today and credit unions can have it. Now.

On the show are Abhishek Tiwari, chief product officer at Eltropy, and Kent Lugrand, CEO at InTouch Credit Union, an $800+ million institution headquartered in Texas.

Lugrand is a past CU 2.0 Podcast guest. That show ranks high among the best we’ve filed. Today he is here to explain why he wanted to be an early adopter of this Agentic AI technology and he explains in candid detail.

Abhishek, meantime, is on the show to explain the Eltropy tool and to offer details on the Eltropy Safe AI framework - because safety is key to persuading credit unions to deploy this technology.

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

Send a text

And First Entertainment Credit Union Begat CineFi.

Say what?

First Entertainment is the big show business credit union. Based in Hollywood, it has assets of around $2.1 billion and serves around 90,000 members, many of them who work in Hollywood, doing everything from acting to the skilled crafts (such as set building) that create Hollywood’s magic.

On the show is Stephen Owen, CEO of First Entertainment and he is here to tell what CineFi is, why First Entertainment birthed it, and why it is based in Atlanta, GA, some 2300 miles removed from Hollywood.

CinedFi is a digital only institution, no branches, and right now its offerings consist of checking and savings, although Owen says the plan is to augment that product slate later in 2026.

How to become a CineFi member? The FOM consists of a handful of Georgia counties, centered around Atlanta, and although the aim is to serve the large number of entertainment industry professionals who live in the Atlanta area,CineFi is open to others as well. Owen explains in the show.

Understand, CineFi does not have its own charter. Owen tells how it came into existence - and he adds that there may be CineFis opening elsewhere in the country.

Ours is an age when the creation of new credit unions is rare indeed. You can count on one hand how many were birthed in the US in 2025 and have a finger to spare.

That’s rare indeed.

So the creation of CineFi is an exciting event and it just may give CEOs and boards of other credit unions the impulse to do something similar.

How cool would that be?

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

Send a text

In mid February, Curql, the collective of 160+ credit unions, announced its first blockchain investment into Stablecore, a company that provides digital asset infrastructure for credit unions.

Literally hundreds of billions of dollars now are flowing into stablecoin, a digital currency backed by fiat currency and accordingly it has little volatility.

Big banks are pouncing on stablecoins but the credit union problem is a lack of tools for managing digital currencies. Enter Stablecore which is designed to enable credit unions to manage member portfolios of digital currencies. It’s a solution that’s needed and that’s why Curql chose to put money into Stablecore.

On the show are Nick Evens, President and CEO of Curql, and Alex Treece, CEO and co-founder of Stablecore,

Along the way, Nick offers insights into Curql’s investment strategy and Alex issues an invite to credit unions that might be interested in a pilot that he is putting together.

Sure, you are glad that you sat out Bitcoin but stablecoin is a very different entity. Now’s the time to get to know about it.

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

Send a text

Are you still relying on product based rewards for members?

Meet the new tool on the block: relationship building.

A trigger is that interchange rates are under attack and, for many financial institutions, it’s been interchange that funded the rewards programs.

So what’s the new approach? On the show is Beth McCoy, CEO of CORA Loyalty, who provides a roadmap for building member relationships that benefit both the member and the institution.

CORA Loyalty explains what it does this way: “Loyalty leaders are shifting from card-centric to relationship-focused campaigns. The approach rewards customers for activities across the institution: maintaining checking accounts, paying account fees, using credit and debit cards, transacting regularly, and long-term relationships.”

“The goal isn’t card spend, but broader and longer lasting outcomes like growing deposits, encouraging treasury management adoption, and strengthening the full banking relationship.”

Sound good?

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

Send a text

Fact: credit unions have lots of data about their members. Everything from home address to their liquidity.

Fact: credit unions, most of them, are woefully inept at mining this data to better serve those members and also to boost member retention and up cashflow into the credit union.

Enter DeepTarget, a Huntsville AL based fintech that serves 285 clients, 85% of which are credit unions and they range in size from around $25 million in assets to several billion dollars in assets.

All come to DeepTarget for its toolkit of proven tools that get results. In 2025 for instance DeepTarget tools helped its customers open 328,000 new accounts, generated $1.98 billion in new loans, and brought in $2.7 billion in new deposits.

The DeepTarget secret is how it effectively mines the data a credit union already has on hand.

That sound you hear is the CU cash register ringing.

Monthly DeepTarget fees are affordable, too, typically four figures a month.

And usually a credit union’s own staff involvement in DeepTarget campaigns is minimal, although accommodations are available for credit unions that want a more hands-on role.

In an era of generative AI all this may seem unglamorous and maybe it is. But it delivers meaningful bottomline results to credit unions.

On the show is Preetha Pulusani, the company founder and CEO.

And if you wonder how all this tech happens in Huntsville, I have one name for you Wernher von Braun. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, look it up.

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

Send a text

Just when I thought credit card rewards initiatives were on the chopping block, here comes David Metz and Priizeout with an innovative twist on credit card rewards and it’s one that already is winning credit union applause. Proof is that also on the show is Sarah Vasey, Chief Operating Officer at Michigan-based United Financial Credit Union, an institution with around $350 million in assets.

Sarah herself is a credit card rewards beneficiary and she tells what she really likes about the Prizeout program. Think shoe money.

Prizeout has been on the show multiple times but that’s because it keeps innovating new offerings that credit unions adopt.

Here’s a great episode that also features Darlene Johnson of Suncoast. Link in the show notes,

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

Send a text

Do credit unions have a future? And if so what?

Meet Lamont Black, a Filene Fellow - Credit Union of the Future.

Spoiler alert: Black is optimistic about the future of credit unions.

A finance professor at DePaul University, Black also is a busy writer, speaker, consultant who focuses on innovative technologies including AI and Bitcoin and, nowadays, especially Stablecoin.

In the show Black is articulate in explaining why AI matters to credit unions and he also offers an understandable description of stablecoins and why and how credit unions should hop aboard.

Understand: the estimated volume of transactions around stablecoins in 2025 was $33 trillion. With a t, not a b. $33 trillion!

Big banks have hopped aboard stable coins, so have giant retailers - think Amazon and WalMart.

Buckle up, this show is a fast ride.

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