Tools and Resources for Credit Unions • MAY 2013
Trends and Topics
of the Month
“Banks Have Given Credit Unions
A Tailor-Made Opportunity To Show
How Much Better We Are”
Question #1: What’s illegal in 11 states, including New York,
but is still being offered in these states at 20,000 locations?
Question #2: What product is bringing in almost $40 billion a year
even though it’s outlawed in more than one-fifth of the country?
Question #3: Thousands of emails have been sent out from CREDO
Action asking recipients to send federal bank regulators signed
petitions to stop big banks from taking a part in what program?
Question #4: What major banks are assisting in this questionable
operation? (HINT: JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank,
Fifth Third Bank, Regions Bank, and Chase.)
A new report from the Center for Responsible
Lending released in March showed how six of
the major banks in this country are working
in conjunction with storefront payday loan
offices to offer loans pitched as “advances
on direct-deposit paychecks.”
“At first glance, the loans do not seem like a typical payday loan.
Instead, banks typically allow a customer to borrow the money
against a checking account. When the loan payment is due, the
bank automatically withdraws the amount of the loan with
interest that averages 225 to 300 percent.”
But the practice has been exposed, and the bad publicity is in full
swing. So once again, banks get the black eye and we get the
white hats.
Read about all of this in the May issue of the AIL Blue Paper.
It’s titled “Banks Have Given Credit Unions
A Tailor-Made Opportunity To Show How
Much Better We Are.” ◆
For your complimentary copy, just contact your AIL representative or call the
AIL Credit Union Center at 800-278-6661.
Canadian Credit Unions
First to Launch Deposit
Anywhere™
A first in the Canadian financial
services market, Central 1 Credit
Union and three
Canadian credit
unions — Meridian
in Ontario, Affinity
in Saskatchewan,
and Westminster
Savings in B.C. —
are launching Deposit Anywhere™,
a new mobile banking application
that makes it easy to deposit a check
using a smartphone. The app is simple
and secure, and enables users to deposit a check anywhere, anytime, in
less than a minute, without having
to visit a branch
or find an ATM.
Credit unions
will be the first financial institutions
in Canada to offer remote deposit
capture — the ability for members
to use the camera in their mobile
device to
snap an
image of the check they want to and
deposit use their mobile banking app
to deposit the item electronically.
Deposit Anywhere is Central 1’s
branded mobile deposit service.
To use the new feature, credit union
members log in to their mobile
banking app with their smartphone
or mobile device, take pictures of the
front and back of the check, select
the account into which they would
like to deposit the funds, enter the
continued on page 2
Published as a public service by the Credit Union Center of American Income Life Insurance Company, P.O. Box 2608, Waco, TX 76797.
Call The Credit Union Center Hotline at 1-800-278-6661 with suggestions, questions and requests. Visit our website at: www.ailife.com
2 • May 2013 • Credit Union Lines
CU Trends and Topics
continued from front page
details, and send the information to their credit union.
Once received, the money is deposited immediately into
their account and a confirmation number is sent to them.
Starting on April 17, members of Westminster Savings
can use Deposit Anywhere when they download the free
Westminster Savings mobile banking app. Meridian and
Affinity credit unions plan to launch the feature in May.
Deposit Anywhere will be broadly available for credit
unions to begin implementation this June.
“We are constantly developing new, innovative ways
for credit unions to meet the changing needs of their
members,” said Oscar van der Meer, Chief Technology
Officer at Central 1. “We help them keep in the lead of
the rapidly developing financial services market.”◆
Central 1 Launches Campaign to Get British Columbians to Switch
Central 1 has just launched Get Your Share, a social
media-driven promotion on behalf of the Credit Unions
of B.C. The campaign is designed to encourage British
Columbians to switch to a credit union.
Starting Thursday, April 4, when British Columbians
over the age of 19 open an account at a B.C. credit union
through Get Your Share, they will receive 10 gifts over the
course of five days — five gifts to keep and five to share
with Facebook friends. The gifts range from $5 to $250
to spend at retailers — such as Amazon.ca, Starbucks,
iTunes, and Mountain
Equipment Co-op —
and are being awarded
CU Funding Enables
Single Mothers Support
Program to Expand
to the first 5,000 new members who sign up through the
Get Your Share promotion. These new members can also
share the promotion on Facebook and be eligible for
the member-only $20,000 grand prize draw, which will
be deposited to the
winner’s credit union
account of choice.
Existing members
are also encouraged
to participate in the promotion. For every friend
they share the promotion with on Facebook, they
will be rewarded with an entry into the member-only
$20,000 draw. ◆
Serving the Community
The YWCA Metro Vancouver is
expanding its Single Mothers’ Support
Program to five new communities,
thanks to a $450,000 investment from
three B.C. credit unions.
The program works to ensure
that women parenting alone are
able to achieve personal and
economic independence. The funding from Coast Capital
Savings, Vancity, and Envision Financial, a division of
First West Credit Union, will allow
support groups to be established in
Surrey, Port Coquitlam, Aldegrove,
Maple Ridge, and Abbotsford.
Previously, single mothers had
to travel to Vancouver to take
advantage of the service.
The YWCA program expansion
is the result of the vision of three female credit union
CEOs — Coast Capital’s Tracy Redies,
Vancity’s Tamara Vrooman, and First
West’s Launi Skinner — who decided
to pool resources to ensure that muchneeded services are available to more
single mothers in Metro Vancouver
and the Fraser Valley.
“I am inspired by the generosity of
the three credit unions and the exceptional women who
lead them,” said Janet Austin, CEO, YWCA Metro
Vancouver. “They show us
the true meaning of cooperation, and they demonstrate
that it is possible for
competitors to collaborate
to drive positive social
change. With their support,
the YWCA can create the
conditions for many single
mothers to build better
futures for themselves
and their children. ”◆
Published as a public service by the Credit Union Center of American Income Life Insurance Company, P.O. Box 2608, Waco, TX 76797.
Call The Credit Union Center Hotline at 1-800-278-6661 with suggestions, questions and requests. Visit our website at: www.ailife.com