Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders
Credit Union Times
JULY 26, 2017 | VOL. 28 | NO. 25 | CUTIMES.COM
hen First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union
found its members increasingly migrating online,
it decided its branches needed a
new architecture.
The new situation required
employees of the Bethlehem,
Pa., credit union to transition
to spending more time helping
members solve problems than
performing transactions.
To that end, 95 of its 176 employees of First Commonwealth
($672.4 million in assets, 54,569
members) have become Certified
Financial Wellness Coaches this
year through a program administered by Greenpath Inc. of Farmington Hills, Mich. This summer
the credit union is launching a series of financial health seminars.
Meanwhile, the branch rede-
sign and training efforts are part
of the credit union’s recent “Dif-
ferent … by Design” marketing
campaign.
Donna LoStocco, president/CEO,
said the goal is to
make continual development of employee skills part of
the credit union’s
culture, and better
enable it to achieve
its mission of cultivating the financial health
MARKETING
Architecture for Member Relationships
JIM DUPLESSIS
jduplessis@cutimes.com
Y17
FINANCIAL ADVICE
Employees Need Help
Heated dissention over tax cuts
and health care for Americans
are center stage. But back stage,
a relevant, worrisome and largely overlooked issue lingers: The
average Financial Wellness Score
for U.S. employees is a dismay-ingly low 5. 4 on a scale of one to
10. Indeed, only about 6% of the
overall workforce can be considered financially secure, defined
as scoring at least nine out of 10.
Driven by money behaviors,
financial wellness means maintaining a lifestyle at or below
one’s financial needs, keeping an
emergency fund and carrying a
reasonable level of debt, among
other components, said Cynthia
Meyer, resident financial plan-ner at Financial Finesse, a leading financial education and research company.
In its study, “Optimizing Financial Wellness for a Diverse
Workforce,” released in May, Financial Finesse found that only
one in five employees of all ethnicities, including earners of
$200,000 or above, had emergency savings.
Focusing on disparities among
ethnic groups, the study showed
that 31% of African-American
employees and 25% of Hispanic/
Latinos are “struggling” or “suf-
fering” financially. Further, un-
less educated and coached, these
groups are likely to maintain be-
haviors that keep them in a “cy-
cle of low financial wellness.”
With the U.S. workforce be-
coming more diverse, Y16
Must Reads
Top Data
Breaches of
2017
ROY URRICO
rurrico@cutimes.com
.S. breaches are on a
record pace, again,
following a record-breaking 2016, according to a report from Providence,
R.I.-based CyberScout (formerly
IDT911) and San Diego-based
Identity Theft Resource Center.
The number of U. S. data breaches tracked through June 30, 2017
hit a half-year high of 791. This
represents a significant jump of
29% over 2016 figures during the
same period. At this pace, ITRC
anticipates the number of breaches could reach 1,500 in 2017, a 37%
annual increase over 2016, when
breaches reached a record high of
1,093 incidents. The breaches so
far exposed 12,389,462 reported
records.
The ITRC defines a data breach
as an incident in which an individual name plus a Social Security
number, driver’s license number,
medical record or financial record (credit/debit cards included)
potentially puts people at risk of
exposure.
The ITRC 2017 Breach Report
is a compilation of data breaches confirmed by various media
sources and/or notification lists
from state governmental agencies.
Some breaches did not have reported statistics yet or remained
unconfirmed. The ITRC
CYBERSECURITY
Y18
Credit Card
Use Trends
Member card use
spikes up and
down. Y11
Instant
Issuance
Benefits
Deliver speed,
security and
service. Y8
FOCUSREPORT:
CREDIT & DEBIT CARDS
With the rollout of EMV chips came a new card design concept – vertical
card orientation as opposed to horizontal. Learn the pros and cons of the
marketing move in this Focus Report. Y6
LoStocco
