Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders
Credit Union Times
JULY 12, 2017 | VOL. 28 | NO. 23 | CUTIMES.COM
TECHNOLOGY
Modernizing Insurance
Change doesn’t always come
easy for a 124-year-old insurance
company. Nor does it come easy
for the most traditionally conservative and insulated department
within that company: The legal
department.
Liberty Mutual’s legal department is nonetheless engaged in
a technology initiative to modernize its operations — an effort that will require leveraging
data, updating in-house software
and a decisive shift in workplace
culture.
This ongoing effort is aimed
at making the department more
cost-effective and efficient. It
also is an opportunity to streamline one of the company’s core
business offerings.
Integral to Business
At Liberty Mutual, the legal department needed financial and
operational support from company executives and leaders to
take on its modernization initiative, which can be challenging to
secure in any corporate business
setting.
“Capital expenditure budgets
are [usually] extremely tight in
corporations, so it can be a whole
lot harder to free up these budgets for noncore costs like a legal
department,” said Brad Blickstein, principal at the Blickstein
Group, a consultancy that works
with corporate law departments
and law firms.
But Liberty Mutual executives,
along with most others in Y16
hile credit unions
and banks always
spin their merger
announcement
as good news, a North Carolina
credit union has spun the bad
news about bank mergers into
a new marketing strategy to in-
crease awareness about the credit
union difference and to convert
bank customers into members.
The $2.1 billion Truliant Credit
Union in Winston-Salem, N.C., officially announced in June that it
has no plans to merge ever, unlike
many community banks within its
market area.
“It seemed like over the last
couple years we’ve seen a lot of
mergers, but then all of the sudden recently, it’s been one [bank
merger] announcement after another [bank merger] announcement,” Karen DeSalvo, chief marketing officer for Truliant, said.
Indeed, disappearing community banks in North Carolina has
grabbed local media headlines.
The News Observer in Raleigh
noted in an article last August that
community banks could be headed for the endangered species
list. The newspaper reported that
the number of banks chartered in
the state — the majority of which
are community banks — has fallen from 92 to 53 mostly because
of mergers or acquisitions. And
more bank mergers have
MARKETING
CUs Leverage Mergers for Marketing
PETER STROZNIAK
pstrozniak@cutimes.com
Y17
FOCUSREPORT:
CYBERSECURITY
Bad news of breaches, hacks and other forms of cybercrime bombard credit
unions on a regular basis. But are credit unions fearful enough, and how can
they protect themselves? In this Focus Report, experts weigh in on
cybersecurity strategy. Y6
CUSOs
Make Big
Data Plans
JIM DUPLESSIS
jduplessis@cutimes.com
s consumers leave behind a trail of data as
they digitally wander
through life, credit
unions are realizing they need to
watch these signs closely so they
can stay a step ahead of banks in
offering loans or services.
And, like any other complicated
task beyond the means of most
credit unions, CUSOs are stepping
up to help credit unions link their
private pools of data to the greater
world of big data.
CUSOs from CU Direct of Ontario, Calif., to CUNA Mutual AdvantEdge Analytics of Madison,
Wis., are helping credit unions
create methods to collect, interpret and act on the information in
regular, timely manner.
AdvantEdge Analytics’ parent,
CUNA Mutual Group, has been
providing insurance to credit
unions for more than 80 years,
and it now serves about 95% of the
nation’s credit unions.
“Being that we’re an insurance
company, we have analytics in our
DNA,” said Tim Peterson, Advant-
Edge Analytics’ president. “We
have 80 years of history knowing
how to assess risk and price risk,
and 30 years’ experience with di-
rect marketing.”
Providing the analytical models
and insights from the mod-
MARKETING
Y18
Fintech
Outlook
Online lenders face
opportunities and
challenges. Y14
Fighting
Cybercrime
An omni-channel
shield can protect
CUs. Y8
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