ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

In Case You Missed It (v28)

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, CUs of all sizes! We’ve got all sorts of wacky and wonderful things here today! For starters there’s an honest-to-goodness brand-new credit union getting started. The CU-world-famous Chip Filson gives his take on recent bank failures. Is artificial intelligence your new CEO? Can you get your paycheck before it’s payday? And you won’t believe the way people are shopping! Here’s what we’ve seen lately, in case you missed it:

Proposed credit union Diverge gathering steam

Diverge is a Proposed Federal Credit Union making its way through the NCUA chartering process, and is currently seeking capital commitments and deposit pledges.

At iDiz, we’re honored to support this bold, radically inclusive effort to bring vital financial services to whole new categories of chronically underserved people. This is what credit unions are all about, and this is the power of the credit union movement to innovate and improve well-being in new ways. Starting a new credit union is tough, and support from the movement is greatly needed. We’d encourage you to find out more and do what you can!

The CU perspective on bank failures

This article on the recent bank failures from beloved credit union curmudgeon Chip Filson, gives a very interesting perspective on the issues, and how it might affect CUs and regulators now and in the future. Many CUs are already working to reassure nervous members. NAFCU’s Joe Berger and other leaders are releasing statements on the subject. It’s also pretty interesting that President Joe Biden has made a clear, understandable distinction between the banks’ depositors (who will not lose money) and its investors (who will lose money).

Will Fortune 500 CEOs be replaced by AI?

A Hong Kong online gaming firm with $2.1B in annual revenue appointed a new CEO in August 2022 that doesn’t sleep, works 24/7, and doesn’t get paid. But she does have a name. Tang Yu is a virtual robot powered by AI, and since her appointment the company has outperformed Hong Kong’s stock market (+18.2% vs. -2.8%). Since today’s Fortune 500 CEOs average about $16m/year, how long can their Board of Directors justify that level of CEO pay?

Getting paid before payday

It’s been around for a little while, but this interesting financial service, called Earned Wage Access (AKA early wage access) popped up recently on Exploding Topics, a service that sifts search traffic for interesting trends (seriously, sign up for the emails; fascinating stuff). It’s quite simple; instead of waiting for their direct deposit, employees can get access to money they’ve already earned before payday. This kind of down-to-earth, everyday, working-person service is an absolute natural for credit unions.

Are you doing this? Why the heck not? After all, “microcredit” or small credit services have huge potential for doing a lot of good, making lives better, and keeping members away from predatory lenders.

In my defense, I was left unsupervised

Drunk shoppers spent $14B online last year, mostly buying clothes and shoes (47%), and of course, more alcohol (34%). However, 19% also admitted to buying a pet, while 16% ended up buying a new car! (And yes, men were mostly the ones buying cars AND pets.) Do CUs need to tweak their financial education programs to reach this demographic? Or should they start co-marketing with AA?

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