By: Charles Shanley, SPHR, CFS
Also featured on CU Insight

As Baby Boomers continue to retire and the improving economy increases the availability of new job opportunities, the odds of losing long-term leadership or highly-skilled personnel are on the rise. For institutions that don’t have internal bench strength or ready access to qualified candidates to fill important open positions, the future could be challenging. Learn how building and maintaining a cost-effective internal training strategy and well-thought out succession plan can infuse your institution with the talent you need to succeed.

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By Kelly Flynn, National Sales Director

While many financial institutions remain focused on addressing the migration of their credit and debit cards to new EMV security standards, they shouldn’t overlook the potential savings and service improvements they could get from their current card brand and processing contracts. The EMV migration process is expected to continue into 2017, however your institution can get started right away to uncover lower costs, possible signing incentives, and better account holder services with a professional review  and renegotiation of your existing credit and debit card vendor agreements.

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BAYTOWN, Texas (January 7, 2016) – John M. Floyd & Associates (JMFA), the leading consultant for banks and credit unions nationwide, has named long-time regional director Mark Roe as national sales director for the company’s profit and performance enhancement consulting services, Roe will lead all sales efforts, as well as training initiatives to support JMFA’s strategies that lead to long-term stability for its clients. Read more

By J. Keith Hughey, Senior Consultant

Generating revenue and growth are essential for maintaining stability for all financial institutions. But oftentimes, marketing resources are focused on attracting new prospects instead of capturing additional business from current account holders – even though conventional wisdom asserts that it costs far more to gain new business than to grow an existing relationship. Learn four strategic steps you can take to capture a greater share of wallet from your existing account holders and increase their level of loyalty to your institution.

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By J. Keith Hughey, Senior Consultant

Regulations, cyber security, EMV migration, low interest rates, technology and competition. These are just a few of the issues concerning community-based financial institutions as they strive to be competitive or make the transition to becoming a larger institution. With all of that on their plates, I am nonetheless dismayed that one crucial area that lacks attention in an organization’s quest for success is how to maintain a level of leadership that is capable of guiding it for the long-term.

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By Kelly Flynn, National Director

Staying on top of changing consumer demands remains one of the top challenges for financial institutions today. Whether it’s a mobile app that allows members to better manage their transactions; the ability to receive text/SMS notifications on transactions over a pre-determined amount or outside of a specified geographical area; implementing card tokenization or rolling out new pin and chip card technology with new Euro MasterCard/Visa (EMV) cards, offering new technology to account holders will most likely involve substantial costs.

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By Charles Shanley, Executive Vice President

Online resources continue to play a crucial role in consumer shopping preferences. As a result, more and more individuals are accessing financial services through digital channels. According to the Filene Research Institute, 50 percent of consumer’s report searching exclusively online for financial services products. What’s more, they are typically drawn to a specific product before settling on the right bank or credit union. And, according to a recent study from Accenture, 72 percent of consumers aged 18 to 34 would bank with Google and T-Mobile if they offered financial services.  

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By J. Keith Hughey, Senior Consultant

I recently took part in the Independent Bankers Association of Texas' 41st Annual Convention in Galveston. Throughout the three-day event, I observed one speaker after another take a moment to thank various people – with kudos being directed to team members, family, mentors, Boards of Directors, the IBAT staff and leadership, along with the exhibit hall staff, event planners, food service staff, and assorted others – who in one way or another either had a hand in their achievements or in making the event and its many moving parts a rousing success.

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By J. Keith Hughey, Senio Consultant

While your current board members may have been carefully vetted when they were first recruited to lead the institution, if they no longer represent your account holder demographic, fail to stay actively involved or lack the ability to make well-informed decisions that impact the bottom line, it may be time to re-evaluate the value they bring to the organization. Learn five steps you can take to improve the odds that your institution’s board is providing the leadership necessary to help you meet or exceed your strategic goals.

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By Kelly Flynn, National Director

As the deadline approaches for transitioning to new, more secure EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) debit and credit cards, many financial institutions are concerned about the time and expense that will be required to reissue new cards to their account holders. In reality, this deadline provides a tremendous opportunity to renegotiate debit and credit card, and card processing contracts to make sure your institution is getting the very best price, terms and services from your current vendors. In addition to providing your account holders with the latest in card fraud protection, learn how a contract review and renegotiation and benefit your bottom line.

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