Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders
Credit Union Times
JANUARY 23, 2019 | VOL. 30 | NO. 3 | CUTIMES.COM
2018
Breaches:
The Dirty
Dozen
ROY URRICO
rurrico@cutimes.com
CYBERSECURITYFOCUSREPORT:
AUTO LENDING
Monetary
Pitfalls
Education helps
members avoid
them. Y14
Lending at
Full Speed
Auto loans
continue to drive
business. Y8
Due in part to the anticipation of
autonomous vehicles, the
popularity of ride-sharing services
and improvements to public transit,
the iconic role of the automobile in
America has begun to fade. Learn
how consumers’ shifting views of
transportation will impact credit
unions’ auto lending business in
this Focus Report. Y6
Must Reads
INVESTMENTS
‘Pensionize’ 401(k)s and IRAs
In a world of defined contributions, American workers have
three challenges – inadequate
savings, leakage (or loans/early
withdrawals) tied to their retirement accounts and the need for
retirement income. Plus, just half
of all DC plans offer a way for
investors to transform balances
into periodic retirement income,
with only one in five offering
guaranteed lifetime payouts.
This situation prompted Steve
Vernon of the Stanford Center on Longevity, Wade Pfau of
The American College of Financial Services and researcher Joe
Tomlinson to explore and devise solutions to “pensionize”
retirement plans. Their work,
first published last year and then
updated this year, finds that only
one-third of workers contact financial advisors, and most lack
the necessary skills to convert
savings into retirement income
and typically have short planning horizons.
But research from the Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL)
and Society of Actuaries (SOA)
has found a “straightforward retirement strategy,” according to
the three authors. “Choosing a
specific solution that will help
workers generate retirement income requires them to make
informed tradeoffs between potentially competing goals,” they
explained, such as “maximizing
lifetime income; providing access to savings (liquidity); planning for bequests;
CREDIT UNION MANAGEMENT
Tech Aids Disaster Recovery
Natural disasters seem to be oc
curring more frequently in recent
years and create a backlog for
property and casualty insurers
ho want to ensure policyhold
ers recover and stay ahead of the
next event. Insurers are increas-
ing their reli ce on technology
both pre- and post-catastrophe
to support their policyholders.
Amid the emotional process
of assessing da ages and de-
veloping a recovery plan, poli-
cyholders turn to insurance
providers for guidance during
the process from start to finish.
Insurers are essential in mitigat-
ing policyholders’ losses quickly
and efficiently to maintain cus-
tomer satisfaction. Today, tech-
nology plays a critical role in this
process.
Pre-Catastrophe
Before disaster strikes, insurers
are both the expert and safety net
for policyholders, who rely on
them to prepare for the unlikely
event. Therefore, insurance com
panies must have the technology
to understand and protect people before and after claims are
filed. This involves employing
digital tools to better navigate,
understand and utilize the data
they collect.
Many large carriers today hav
established their own advanced
catastrophe forecasting and mon-
itoring capability. Several well-
established third parties also pro
vide similar services to carriers
who cannot practically Y16
ontrary to popular
belief, reports of the
death of the credit
union branch are
greatly exaggerated.
Perhaps no one understands
this more than the executives
at the $1.9 billion Vantage West
Credit Union, who are working
to open 10 new branches by 2022
throughout the Phoenix, Ariz.,
Richard Paige,
director of mar-
ket and prod-
uct development, and Andrew
Downin, vice president of mar-
keting and communications for
Arizona’s third-largest coopera-
tive by assets and second-larg-
est by members,
explained why
and how they are
leveraging a data-
driven, submarket
branch strategy
to serve current
members who live
in the Phoenix
area. They also discussed oppor-
tunities for attracting prospec-
tive members who are moving in
droves to the Valley of the Sun.
The U.S. Census Bureau
Investing in Branch Expansion
PETER STROZNIAK
pstrozniak@cutimes.com
GROWTH STRATEGIES
hat were 2018’s
worst breaches?
By year’s end,
more than 1,200
breaches affected over 560 mil-
lion reported records. But some
sources brought the total even
higher by including estimated un-
reported records.
CU Times looked at the statistics
compiled by the San Diego, Calif.-
based Identity Theft Resource
Center (which was still tallying the
damage at press time) to compile
this list of 2018’s 12 most damag-
ing breaches. But we also enlisted
feedback from other sources, such
as the Panama-based virtual pri-
vate network provider NordVPN.
The ITRC’s compilation of
data breaches uses reports con-
firmed by various media sources
and/or notification lists from
state governmental agencies.
Some breaches did not yet have
reported statistics or remained
unconfirmed.
The ITRC defines a data breach
as an incident exposing an individual name − plus a Social Security or driver’s license number, or
medical or financial record (
cred-it/debit cards included) – that potentially puts personally identifiable information at risk. Y17 Y18
Paige Downin
