Visions - September 2006
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Steve Ruwe Named Chief Risk Officer
Industry veteran Steve Ruwe
has joined PSCU Financial
Services as  Chief Risk Officer. Ruwe will oversee the implementation of an enterprise-wide risk management strategy for the organization, with the initial
focus on minimizing risk and
controlling fraud in credit
and debit card portfolios of
member-owner credit unions.
Steve comes to our cooperative
following a distinguished 13-year career at Visa USA where he
served as Executive Vice
President of Operations
and Risk. Highly regarded as a
leading expert on risk
management, Ruwe has testified before Congress numerous times on issues related to data security, Internet gaming, and
Internet pharmacies.
Steve has spent his entire
professional career in the
payments industry. Prior to
joining Visa, Steve held
senior management positions at Barclays Bank, Household Credit Services, and Gary-Wheaton Bank. He has served on the Board of the Economic Crime Institute and the Financial Services Sector Council for Critical Infrastructure
Protection and Homeland
Security. Steve is a past Board Member of the National White Collar Crime Center and has
represented the payments
industry by working with
policymakers in Washington, D.C. He has also served as a spokesperson for Visa on
data security.
“A key component of our
success and our member credit unions’ success rides on the safety and soundness of the payments industry. Our member credit unions and the industry at large will benefit from Ruwe’s
experience and expertise,” said David J. Serlo, President and CEO, PSCU Financial Services. “His appointment further validates our company’s leadership position
within the industry and enables
us to build on our delivery
of best-in-class fraud
management capabilities.”
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Grow Your Business
Special introductory pricing is available on three popular solutions—CURewards,
Adaptive Control System (ACS) and Account Level Processing (ALP). All CURewards account fees and ACS and ALP
enrollment fees will be waived through December 31, 2006.
Contact your Account Executive today to learn how we can
help provide new growth
opportunities for your
card programs.
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Account Level Processing Gives ‘Credit Where Credit is Due’
Our ALP solution not only offers greater member
satisfaction, it delivers proven technology that boosts staff productivity by eliminating manual reviews and account changes,” said John Pembroke, Executive Director of Marketing & Product Development,
PSCU Financial Services. “These efficiencies help credit unions grow their credit portfolios with very little additional staff effort. |
We’ve all heard the saying “give credit where credit is due.” Virginia Credit Union, of Richmond, Va., is winning
member loyalty by doing just that.
The credit union recently implemented cardholder-based
pricing for their credit card program as part of PSCU
Financial Services’ Account Level Processing (ALP)
Solution. Account Level Processing evaluates cardholder
account characteristics and behavior and automatically
adjusts pricing at the account level.
Last year Virginia Credit Union re-priced its entire
portfolio and set five interest rates for its 50,000 Visa and MasterCard cardholders. Sixty percent of its cardholders received a more favorable rate, 23 percent stayed the same
and 17 percent experienced a rate increase.
“Since we have implemented ALP, member satisfaction is higher overall, outstanding credit balances are up by
5 percent and we have improved new cardholder
acquisition rates,” according to Deb Wreden, the credit union’s marketing manager.
Using ALP to set interest rates is essential to staying
competitive with major banks, Wreden noted. “We need to
be able to issue cards with lower rates, but the only way to
do that without increasing risk is to implement a
cardholder-based pricing solution like ALP.”
The ALP program also offers other advantages, Wreden
explains. “It rewards our lowest-risk cardholders and
encourages them to use our card. It also gives us an
opportunity to educate our membership about the source
and impact of their credit scores. We offer free credit
counseling so members can take steps to improve their
score and their interest rate.”
Wreden notes that more members now take an active
interest in their credit history and behavior. “Now that they understand the process, we have members who are actively engaged in improving their scores so that they can earn lower interest rates,” she explained.
ALP pricing also drives pricing for other credit promotions like balance transfers. Virginia Credit Union has more than 170,000 members and $1.3 billion in assets. It is one of the 75 largest credit unions in the country.
For more information about PSCU Financial Services’ ALP solution, please contact your Account Executive. The
program takes just 90 days to implement.
Faster, Easier Access to Carholder Info—What’s Not to Like?
If you are interested in a
better way to access credit and signature debit card
information from the FDR system, Evolve Customer Service is the right choice. Evolve allows member service and back-office staff to retrieve information from a graphical user interface, instead of inputting codes to handle a variety of requests.
Dozens of credit unions have already adopted Evolve. “Evolve is very user friendly. There are no codes to
memorize, you just click on icons for access,” reports Terry Gibbons, Loan Officer, Cincinnati Central Credit Union, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Evolve is very user friendly and easy to understand, according to Melissa Thomas, Vice President Automated Services, VyStar Credit Union, Jacksonville, Florida. “Training our staff on the Evolve system took less than 90 minutes. Because Evolve is so easy to use, employees feel a higher degree of confidence using the system. It is much less intimidating than working with the green screens,” Thomas reports.
VyStar Credit Union has deployed Evolve to more than 730 users in its branches, Call Center, Card Services, Fraud, Lending, Item Processing and ATM departments.
With Evolve, data is efficiently
distributed to branches or call
centers. Account access and updates
are processed in real-time to ensure consistent and accurate information for cardholders. The system provides multiple levels of security, and allows credit unions to set their own security standards. Credit unions can also
create different classes of users and delegate sensitive functions to selected staff members.
Evolve increases productivity and
member satisfaction while ignificantly lowering training time. Contact your
Account Executive to deploy Evolve.
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American Eagle FCU Soars to New Heights Balances Up—Delinquency Down
From 2 percent to 13 percent. That’s the annual growth in credit card balances achieved by American Eagle
Federal Credit Union, of East Hartford, Conn., in 2005. The credit union is on track to boost balances by an
additional 8 percent in 2006.
Automated management tools and experienced
advisors from PSCU Financial Services have helped
this credit union
revitalize its stagnant credit card program,
according to Jennifer Cowles, the credit union’s Chief Lending Officer.
The credit union implemented PSCU Financial Services’ Adaptive Control System (ACS) to automatically manage credit line increases/decreases and provide more efficient and effective handling of delinquent accounts. ACS also offers the ability to establish a customized
reissue period based on performance and risk.
“ACS delivers leading-edge automated technology used by national issuers. We are able to set up parameters to give additional credit to those who deserve it and reduce credit limits and access fees to cardholders who are not
managing the account according to the terms of the
agreement. This tool also helps us prioritize activities
so that our staff devotes its time to managing the
delinquent accounts with the greatest risk of default,” she reports.
January of 2005 to January of 2006, the credit union achieved a 13 percent increase in balances, while
decreasing the number of delinquent accounts by almost
20 percent for those who are one cycle late and by
13 percent for those who are three cycles late. The
credit union added almost $20 million in credit line
increases, with an average line increase of $2,000 with
the ACS product. Cowles also credits the AdvisorsPlus™
program with helping her staff design and implement
effective credit card promotions. “This advisory team has helped us encourage card usage among our members and has played a vital role in increasing credit balances,“ she notes. “They analyzed our program and our
membership and made recommendations based on best practices expertise and advanced tools like data mining and predictive modeling. I cannot overstate the
advantages of using this team’s industry-wide
intelligence. Our staff could not have achieved these results on our own.”
The credit union’s first campaign with AdvisorPlus involved credit line increases. Another recommendation the credit union implemented was to eliminate cash rebates in favor of a rewards program. “We have launched several promotions tied in with the CURewards® program, some offering double or triple points for balance transfers or activity increases.”
Cowles has worked with her team of advisors to
implement 10 initiatives for the credit program. She adds that the combined results of ongoing promotions and the adaptive control are amazing. In addition to impressive gains in outstanding balances, the average credit line has increased by 7 percent, interest and fees are up
25 percent, and interchange income is up 10 percent.
The credit union utilizes PSCU Financial Services’
Contact Centers for the credit union’s 1,500 cardholder calls a month. “We have found that it is more cost
effective for us to outsource these calls than to handle them with our own staff,” notes Cowles.
American Eagle FCU is the largest federal credit union
in Connecticut with almost 100,000 members and
$897 million dollars in assets. It has 40,000 credit card accounts and reached $50 million in credit balances in December 2005.
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Financing Gen-Y Mobility
 Buying a car is the first big-ticket
purchase for many young
adults—a life event that is long remembered and defines future purchases. For the financial
institution that finances the
vehicle, the first car purchase has special significance as well. If the experience is positive, it could be the start of a lifelong relationship with
the consumer.
“One could argue that the future
viability of credit unions pivots on attracting both young adults and their very first auto loans,” suggests
George A. Hofheimer, Director of Research for the Filene Research Institute.
Filene has just released First-Time Used Car “Y’ers,” the third report in the Cool Solutions series. The latest report examines why, in George Hofheimer’s opinion, “for credit unions, a sense of urgency is embedded in the first time used car buying experience.” The report examines in detail the many facets of the young adult’s car buying experience, and the implications each has for credit unions.
PSCU Financial Services provided financial support for
this important study to help credit unions improve their
understanding of this critical member segment. To download a PDF copy of this report, and previous reports in the Cool
Solutions series, visit www.pscufs.com/segments.htm. Or, if you would like a FREE printed copy of this report, please send an email to coolsolutions@pscufs.com.
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Many Reasons To Go Reloadable
 Founders Federal Credit Union of
Lancaster, S.C., was the first to
implement the new reloadable prepaid card from PSCU Financial Services. The reason was simple: its members wanted the product.
“Our existing gift card program is very well received but we could tell that our members wanted a more flexible card that would be accepted in a greater
variety of locations,” notes Pam
Gilmore, Vice President, Visa, Founders FCU. “We could also see the advantages of having a reloadable product for travel, student use and as an incentive for a variety of promotions.”
The reloadable prepaid card is designed to fit seamlessly into branch operations and offers convenience not only for the credit union but also cardholders. “It’s easy for us to load the card and for our members to visit the web site where they can check balances and reload funds
if desired.”
The credit union plans to promote the card for a variety of uses including high school student group trips and as an incentive to recruit new members from area businesses and schools and an
active retirement community. The credit union has 150,000 members and $1.1 billon in assets.
Reloadable Works
PSCU Financial Services recently debuted its new reloadable card, which offers the same protection as a Visa debit card and is supported by its
award-winning 24 x 7 Contact Center. This proven product is provided
through eFunds Prepaid, formerly
Wildcard Systems.
Marketing kits are available for travel, student and general purpose cards. These cards can also address needs of the underserved.
PSCU Financial Services has joined a prepaid organization of large issuers to work with government regulators to help create laws that benefit both card issuers and consumers.
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Fighting Back Against ID Theft
Protect your members with the Identity Theft Solution
designed for credit unions. This low cost comprehensive
program from PSCU Financial Services offers your
members the protection they need, and the restoration
services they’ll want, should they become a victim of
identity theft.
The Identity Theft Solution comes in two tiers. Basic
coverage includes an assigned recovery advocate that assess the damage, creates a recovery plan that includes the use of limited power of attorney, corrects all incidents of fraud, and provides a post-recovery followup. Advanced coverage adds continuous credit monitoring with weekly alerts that identify account activity, identity theft insurance and educational materials.
Many members fear identity theft not only because of the potential loss of financial resources but also the excessive amount of time required to combat and resolve the problem. This solution is an excellent way for credit unions to attract and retain members.
Identity Theft Solution helps credit unions and their members address this important and timely matter of concern.
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