The Credit Union National Association Governmental Affairs Conference (CUNA GAC) 2023 is almost upon us.
CUNA GAC is the biggest credit union advocacy event of the year. Running between Sunday, 26th of February, and Thursday, 2nd of March, this year’s event will see thousands of industry professionals descend on Washington, DC.
Their main goal is to remind lawmakers how their decisions affect US credit unions and their 130 million members. But CUNA GAC also gives attendees a chance to learn from and network with thought leaders from the worlds of finance, business, and politics. With keynote speakers including Condoleezza Rice, Jennifer Palmieri, and Karl Rove, this year’s event is shaping up to be one of the best yet.
This article explores the main talking of CUNA GAC 2023 and how BankBI is evolving to help US credit unions overcome their biggest challenges.
Industry Drivers, Talking Points, and Challenges
Maximizing Resources and Reducing Costs
The current economic outlook is challenging. With rising interest rates and inflation, organizations across all sectors are trying to maximize their resources and cut unnecessary expenses. Credit unions are no exception.
Credit unions throughout the US are reducing the number of operating systems they run and maintain in favor of consolidated solutions that possess all the functionality they need. Not only is this potentially cheaper, but it also reduces complexity and allows finance teams to work more efficiently.
The Move Towards Cloud-Based Banking Solutions
The mainstream popularity of hybrid working is one of COVID-19’s most significant legacies. Credit unions were traditionally customer-facing organizations. If someone wanted to open an account or discuss financing options, they would speak to an advisor in-branch. But as credit unions make more of their services digital, the local branch has become just one of several touchpoints.
To support this shift, credit unions continue to embrace cloud-based banking solutions that allow you to serve members from anywhere. There are no hardware or infrastructure costs. And, because back-office staff can log into the system remotely, you gain access to a broader recruitment pool.
Using Credit Union Data More Effectively
One of the things we noticed at CUNA GAC 2022 was reliance upon Excel spreadsheets. Few credit unions were harnessing their data to its full potential, and current economic pressures have put this data deficit under even more scrutiny.
One of the major talking points at this year’s event will be how to get value from credit union data. Automation will be at the heart of the conversation as credit unions seek to establish a single version of the truth for things like loan and deposit analytics. Breaking down data siloes helps credit unions reduce spending, improve data quality, uncover new opportunities, and work more efficiently.
How BankBI Supports US Credit Unions
We have almost a decade of experience in the North American credit union market. Our list of technology partners includes the likes of Fiserv, Finastra, and Engage FI. In 2019, we became the first overseas firm to receive investment from CMFG Ventures. While in 2022, we joined the Curql Collective to promote our solution to the industry.
Today, our cloud-based financial performance and analytics solution helps 32 US and Canadian credit unions serve their members better. To that end, we recently released a free peer analysis tool that lets you see how you compare to other credit unions in your peer group and discover more opportunities. And there’s plenty more coming in 2023.
Asset and Liability Reporting
Managing inherent balance sheet risks is a key responsibility for any credit union. While many outsource the stress testing of the balance sheet to third parties, this is often based upon a quarterly cycle. There are other risks that you must manage daily.
BankBI Asset and Liability Reporting is a suite of daily reports that fills that gap with reports for:
- Concentration risks
- Liquidity
- Maturity analysis
- Interest rate risk
Planning and Budgeting
For many credit unions, the planning and budgeting process is often a siloed application that requires manual data integration and mapping. It’s often down to one individual to manage the process, making it difficult to re-run for new “what-if” scenario analysis when interest rates or market conditions change.
The BankBI Planning and Budgeting solution is a fully integrated, real-time, and event-driven budget process. It enables high-level, top-down planning as well as bottom-up branch-level operational budget creation. It enables seamless integration of 3-year strategic plans with the next budget cycle.
Actionable Insights
Financial performance platforms often talk about giving credit unions actionable insights. However, most simply provide you with raw data that you must analyse and interpret before you can use it.
In 2022, we updated our loan and deposit portfolio software to make it even easier to capitalize on opportunities. Our solution generates clear, actionable opportunity lists. For example, if your goal is to improve member retention, our solution can create a list of members with fixed-term deposits set to mature in the next 30 days. With this information, your relationship team knows who to contact and when.
You can apply the same approach to unlock cross-sell and other revenue opportunities. For example, you can identify members with good credit scores who have a checking account with your credit union, but not a credit card.
Connect With BankBI at CUNA GAC 2023
BankBI CEO Graham Goble, Commercial Director Paul Sutherland, and Business Development Director Keith Waterman will be on the show floor for all five days of CUNA GAC 2023.
If you’ve registered for this year’s event, you can arrange to meet us there. We’re always happy to discuss the latest developments in the credit union space and answer any questions you may have about the BankBI platform.
We look forward to seeing you there!
