Breakout Sessions

At Mastercard, we envision a world beyond cash. It means more than just providing people with a means of electronic payment: it’s about bringing them new opportunities, fostering both financial and digital inclusion in an ever-changing world. Credit Unions have a key role on this mission. At WCUC, you have a chance to learn how we are partnering with Credit Unions around the globe by offering a whole set of solutions, services and technology to enhance business growth.

Business transactions take place every second of every day: orders, payments, account tracking and much more. Often, each participant has his or her own ledger - and, thus, a version of the truth that may differ from other participants. These multiple ledgers can be a recipe for error, fraud and inefficiency. Between 2008 and 2012, a pseudonymous programmer (or programmers) going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto shared with the world a brilliant vision and the code to build it. They proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust. Because members on a blockchain share a common view of the truth, it’s now possible to see all details of a transaction end-to-end, reducing those vulnerabilities.

Blockchain 101 will demystify this complex technology that is being used by organizations to create massive disruption and making it possible for even e-governments to be formed.

Key Takeaways:

• Regulatory oversight and what the exam hopes to achieve
• The key steps of the inspection process and
• How to prepare for an inspection

The presentation will explore how changes in the relationship between credit union's management and Regulators have gravitated over the years, from basic off-site supervision to compliance examination, risk-based supervision and targeted inspections. During the session we will explore how the regulatory authority view a credit union and how its oversight approach model is changing with an emphasis on the revue of significant activities, the elements that may cause the greatest risk to the credit union. The presentation will also tackle some of the changes credit unions will have to consider in order to compete in a crowded financial and legislative environment while remaining true to its cooperative values.

The future of automobiles is A.C.E.S.

Autonomous.
Connected.
Electric.
Shared.

Key Takeaways:

• How the future of automobiles is A.C.E.S. (Autonomous. Connected. Electric. Shared)
• How changes in mobility will impact lending for credit unions

Living with an Engagement Strategy is about connecting with employees, members and prospective members with relevant messaging in order to drive activation and nurture loyalty. The first step is creating a process to be able to listen to what your people are saying. The journey is about evolving the conversation and developing emotional connections with your people.

Key Takeaways:

• Bring Your Brand to Life
• Enable Omni-Channel Conversations
• Re-imagine Message Frequency
• Say Thank-You

This session will highlight unique collaboration opportunities for smaller credit unions.  Panelists will share how their credit unions were able to leverage each others unique strengths and resources, to improve member service, increase growth and enhance long-term success and sustainability. 

Our expert panel will discuss how they came together to share resources to support compliance, accounting, mortgage lending and more.  They will share their experience and what they had to overcome to reach better results.   Session participants will be able to ask questions and gather ideas to take home to their credit unions.

Key Takeaways:

• Specific C2C collaboration ideas (i.e. compliance, accounting, marketing)
• How to build a good working relationship with key strategic partners 

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the impact of disrupters in the Caribbean market
• Moving from strategy development to execution
• Importance of an agile strategy

Providing proportionality in regulation for credit unions and other community-based cooperative financial institutions often requires policymakers to consider how best to achieve safe and sound regulation without imposing disproportionate compliance burdens.  This panel will explore how to achieve proportional and effective prudential supervision for community-based institutions as well as discuss how regulations can and should evolve for the next generation of credit unions.

This session will not be recorded for WCUC On-Demand access.

In this session, participants establish themselves and their careers as a brand. They will define their brand, their audience and their message to enhance their exposure in the workplace. They learn to recognize their choices, to make decisions based on their preferences, values, personal traits and passions, and to leverage their strengths so they will excel in their organizations.

Fintech and BigTech are dominating the field for transactional banking in emerging markets across the world.  Credit Unions need to engage to defend against disintermediation and embrace digital transformation.  This session will discuss the impact of digital financial services by bank and non-bank financial institutions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.   We will challenge convention and consider the impact of Fintech on transactional banking and where credit unions fit in this mix.  As social financial institutions, credit unions have an opportunity to leverage financial technology to secure their base and modernize their services without compromising the founding principles of cooperative organization. 

Key Takeaways:

• The major trends in fintech and transactional banking
  
• How banks are approaching digital transformation 
  
• Lessons that can be learned by credit unions about digital transformation and the new financial services economy

As U.S. credit unions approach the centennial of the passage of the US Federal Credit Union Act in 2034, the role of credit unions in providing secure, fair access to financial services remains as important as ever. Many of the factors that animated the credit union system in the last century remain salient, but recent shifts—from changes in how people work, to increasing financial fragility and inequality, to technological innovations that have transformed how financial institutions interact with consumers—encourage us to reimagine the role that credit unions will play in the global financial services landscape moving forward.

During this presentation, Adam will review the findings of recent research by the Filene Research Institute examining demographic, technological, and consumer behavioral shifts in the U.S. and draw parallels to comparable global upheavals. Adam will also highlight innovative concepts, tested and proven in Filene’s Incubator program, that credit unions can immediately deploy to meet changing consumer needs, grow revenue, and expand membership. Together, participants will interact and experience a not too-distant operating and regulatory future, in which credit unions take action to enable their members for a brighter financial future while sustaining their own bottom lines in the process.

Key Takeaways:

• If credit unions operate with a “business as usual mindset;” they do so at their own peril. Credit unions must evolve along with the significant shifts in consumer demographics, income inequality, the nature of work, and technology if they want to remain relevant and thrive in the future.
• Credit unions have ample tools and concepts at their disposal to meet the current and future needs of their members; but adopting an innovative and agile mindset to experiment with these ideas and adapt to the rapidly changing financial service landscape is needed to take advantage of these ideas.

Key Takeaways:

• Defining your niche and gaining commitment from your Board of Directors.
• Mistakes made and lessons learned when developing a Financial Literacy program in your community.
• Value and pride created for your employees by helping the community.

International Financial Reporting Standards 9 (IFRS 9) is the new accounting standard applicable to impaired financial assets, which includes loans made by cooperatives—such as credit unions, cooperative banks, savings and loan cooperatives, caisses populaires, etc.—to their members. This session will explore a practical and expedient method of implementing IFRS 9. 

Key Takeaways:

• Expected loss vs incurred loss – the forward-looking aspect of IFRS 9
• Implementation checklist for cooperatives
• IFRS 9 impact on cooperatives

A panel of diverse global leaders will thoughtfully challenge the audience to create initiatives that strategically influence their communities and lead to sustainable economic change for members worldwide. During a time of disruption and crisis, credit unions respond intuitively to emergency situations and help rebuild families, homes, farms, communities. Why does it take a fire, hurricane, earthquake, or a government shutdown to visibly demonstrate the cooperative difference? Examples: Cooperatives responding after fires in CA, hurricanes in Puerto Rico; mudslides in Nepal; war in Ukraine and government shutdowns / transitions in US, UK and Brazil.  There are many occasions when banks pull out and credit unions step up to respond to tough times and periods of crisis.  There is a surge in membership and savings.  Imagine the impact cooperatives can make if they come together and authentically identify their purpose, understand the needs within society, commit to mission and not only stand up during crisis, but also create sustainable strategic initiatives that turn a crisis into long term loyalty and gratitude from members. 

Visa and WOCCU are collaborating to bring innovative financial services to under-banked consumers and Small & Medium sized Enterprises in emerging markets.  This session will review our pilot program with Savings and Credit Co-Operatives (SACCOs) in Kenya. 

Key Takeaways:

• What are the needs for under-banked consumers and Small & Medium sized Enterprises?  What are the requirements for the SACCOs and other key stakeholders such as government regulation, mobile operators and technology?
• How did we leverage human centered design to develop a plan? 
• What is the pilot plan?  What are the next steps?

In this session attendees will learn how artificial intelligence is starting to disrupt all the kinds of industries, in particular Credit Unions and how AI can be used in a way to improve member experience and efficiency.

Key Takeaways:

• The importance of teamwork to speedup the implementation of new technologies
• How technology can help provide a better experience
• How to apply artificial intelligence towards credit unions

As the appeal of stress tests disappear (led by United States deregulation), the wisest of the institutions continue to conduct stress testing exercises with expectations of another recession on the horizon and as best practice. As we are in the very late stage of the business cycle before the tides may turn, stress testing has never been more important. With this in mind, we evaluate the outlooks for credit unions and other lenders relative to the macro, regional and global risks that they face, under several alternative forecast scenarios. This examination is intertwined with the impact of CECL accounting standards, which will go into effect at a time a recession in US (and as a result, possibly other countries) is expected. 

While CECL accounting standards are unlikely to be the main reason for the next recession, they are likely to worsen the impact of a recession causing a credit crunch. 

In this presentation, we provide alternative forecast outlooks for Credit Unions and Non-Credit Union lenders based on credit and economic data, as well as lessons learned from the earlier IFRS9 submissions. We draw parallels with and differences from IFRS9 in analyzing this impact.

Learn how innovations in various systems around the world can benefit your own country’s credit union rule books.  This panel will discuss the use of supplemental capital and explore how it might impact your credit union.

Culture is ingrained in our individual societies and within the sub-culture and sub-communities of our respective countries. Often the ingrained values system are reflected through a people’s behaviors. However, the globe is shrinking, technology is ever-connecting, and the younger generation is becoming less tolerant of our differences – and more focused on our shared cooperatives. This session, led by a panel of World Young CU Professionals from varying continents explain how the future of credit unions will be respecting the legacy of culture but creating a new way of doing business, focused in synergy.

Key Takeaways:

• Courage to renew the way your credit union views people with different communication styles, behavior and values.
• Contemporary view on changing legacy protocols and infrastructure.
• Strategies to implement in your credit union for transforming culture.

 

Irish credit unions have just been awarded top spot in Customer Experience (CX) for the fourth consecutive year, the first time anywhere in the world, where CX is measured, that this has been achieved. The presentation seeks to explain why this has happened and to engage participants in exploring how they can learn from the Irish credit union experience and apply the these findings in their home countries.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn what is meant by CX in credit unions.
• Understand how to apply principles of CX in your own organization. 

Credit unions around the world are subject to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules.  This session will explore recent developments, current issues and hot topics in AML/CFT regulations. The associated regulatory burden and its effects on credit unions and financial market will also be explored.  

It is important to evaluate the contribution of a single service attribute to customer satisfaction on a segmented approach rather than on aggregate. The role of different market segments, key satisfaction attributes and their influence on customer satisfaction is explored. The case of the Caribbean is used to highlight key satisfaction attributes for Credit Unions using generations X and Y.

Key Takeaways

• Appreciate the complex nature of Customer Satisfaction
• Understand the need to employ better segmentation practices in customer satisfaction management
• Recognize the customer satisfaction needs of Credit Union members for generational cohorts X and Y in the Caribbean Region

This breakout session centers around a tangible and holistic framework for the credit union business model, in the context of a values-based model. Rather than considering a triple bottom line focus as a nice to have (or add-on), this framework centers on how a credit union can ‘maximize value’ in a way that is integrated into a member-centric business model (from governance to day-to-day operations). This session will engage in a lively discussion of the credit union model’s strengths as well as the inherent challenges of operating in a competitive financial industry.

Case study examples of both a very large and relatively small credit union will be used to illustrate the model. Examples will illustrate specific programs and tools used to maximize the success of a values-based business model.

 

Learning Objective:

By participating in this breakout session, attendees will:

• Conceptual business model for a values-based credit union.
• Acquire a practical understanding of specific examples of management and governance excellence in practice.
• Gain knowledge of specific governance and management tools, such as the co-operative balanced scorecard.
• See how knowledge converts into practice, demonstrated through international networks and co-operative learning opportunities.

In this session we will walk through a credit union’s journey towards a Diverse and Inclusive workforce and membership.  We will discuss the lessons learned and how they learned diversity without inclusion equaled failure.

Key Takeaways:

• Three requirements of a Diverse and Inclusive culture.
• How to ensure you are implementing both.
• How knowing the difference between Diversity and Inclusion will increase your profits.