Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders
Credit Union Times
JUNE 21, 2017 | VOL. 28 | NO. 21 | CUTIMES.COM
Mortgage
Compliance
Outsourcing can
help CUs stay in
line. Y12
Hawaiian
Mortgages
Hawaii State
FCU helps homebuyers. Y8
RETIREMENT
Best and Worst Places
Pre-retirees between the ages of
45 and 64 probably don’t feel old,
but when thinking about where
you should someday retire, you
might give serious thought to the
midwestern part of the U.S.
That’s according to a report
from LPL Financial. The LPL Re-
search Retirement Environment
Index was created to provide
a “state-by-state holistic view”
(that also included Washington)
into the “preretiree landscape.”
According to the index, which
“looks specifically at the 45- to
64-year-old cohort (preretir-
ees) and collectively assesses
strengths and weaknesses of
preretiree desirability on a state
level, rather than city or regional
level,” the Midwest is the place to
be for retirement.
Of course, there are states that
are definitely not the place to be,
too, based on the six key factors
LPL evaluated — each, it says,
with its own supporting metrics
that help to evaluate overall desirability for retirement.
If you’ve had your heart set on
Florida, or one of the other Southern hubs of retirement such as
the Carolinas, after you’ve considered the positions those states
hold on the list you might want
to reconsider. While financially
some states are very desirable,
making retiree resources go further, there are things that matter
more than money — and that can
seriously affect how your retirement goes.
In its evaluation of the Y15
Alabama
One’s Legal
Woes
PETER STROZNIAK
pstrozniak@cutimes.com
ammy Ewing, a former business loan officer of the $607 million
Alabama One Credit
Union, is at the center of a civil
lawsuit that reveals new details of
alleged “dishonest
acts” committed
by Ewing and other
executives, including former President/CEO John
Dee Carruth, involving a business
loan that cost the
credit union more
than $6.5 million.
What’s more, the lawsuit filed
by Alabama One in federal court
earlier this year against CUMIS
Insurance exposes how this fallacious business loan placed the
credit union under years of regulatory scrutiny, led to the termination of executives and the removal
of board members, and caused
additional financial losses including costly lawsuit battles, some
of which are still pending in the
courts.
From 2013 to 2015, Alabama
One spent $4.9 million in legal
fees, including the conservator
expense of $609,533, according
the credit union’s 990 reports filed
with the IRS. About half of the legal fees — $2.2 million —
LAWSUIT
Y18
Must Reads
eviews and ratings for
biometrics at credit
unions continue to
show overwhelmingly
positive results whether used to
authenticate members at branches or on mobile devices, or employees logging in to workstations.
In the past 30 years, biometrics
moved from mostly fingerprint-
ing to many other methods that
measure or analyze an individu-
al’s voice, speech, face, iris, retina,
hand geometry, facial thermog-
raphy, keystroke dynamics, gait,
body odor, veins, foot and palm
prints, handwriting (or signature)
and even tongue.
Fiserv’s Verifast, Palm Authen-
tication technology integrates
Fujitsu palm-vein biometrics to
improve operational efficiency. In
addition, credit unions employ-
ing the technology also seek to
consolidate and restructure em-
ployee identification, allowing
them to focus more on member
engagement.
“Most of biometrics are member facing,” Chris Van Der Stad,
SVP/chief technology officer,
Open Solutions for Fiserv, noted.
According to the Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv, palm biometrics
historically reduced member authentication time by 93%.
In this use case through Fiserv’s
Verifast, Palm Authentication specifically deals with the mul-
TECHNOLOGY
Biometrics Catching on With CUs
ROY URRICO
rurrico@cutimes.com
Y16
FOCUSREPORT:
MORTGAGE
LENDING
Today’s housing market is beginning to favor sellers, with low housing inventories,
rising prices and builders who can’t keep up with demand. Learn how credit unions
fit into the equation in this Focus Report. Y6
Carruth
