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These days, criminals have turned to internet-based transaction laundering to disguise profits from unscrupulous and illegal enterprises. Transaction laundering has also been referred to as factoring, undisclosed aggregation, and electronic money laundering, and it occurs when an undisclosed online business uses another company’s payment credentials to process unknown transactions on behalf of the undisclosed business.

In February 2018, Heritage Federal Credit Union (FCU) launched a new program to encourage healthy competition, foster internal recognition, improve upon member service, member impact, and increase non-interest income with SWBC loan protection products—GAP, Payment Protection, and MMP.

Exit planning is complex, and unfortunately, not many of your commercial customers have the technical acumen or resources needed to ensure they are prepared. They must establish their exit goals and plan for business transfer, build their business’ value, find an appropriate successor or buyer, navigate taxes, and keep their key employees happy enough to stick around, among other things. With so many considerations and activities surrounding a business exit, whether they know it or not, your commercial clients need access to a team of advisors.

While interest margins have improved this year, up 7 basis points from 3Q 2019, according to creditunions.com¹, financial institutions are still in a position that requires them to create revenue streams beyond lending. However, one of the challenges—particularly for service-focused organizations like credit unions—is converting to a product-driven sales culture.

It seems that rarely a day goes by that we don’t catch wind of a case of identity theft. According to an estimate by the FTC¹, around nine million Americans’ identities are stolen each year. And with so much jargon like skimming, fraud, and phishing, it’s not surprising that many consumers don’t know what to look out for. With fraudsters developing new schemes every day, the fraudulent use of identities to establish credit and banking accounts promises to challenge consumers and financial institutions alike for years to come.

The housing market is quite fickle. It’s impacted by economic factors that are often difficult to understand, and typically leaves consumers and lenders alike on the hunt for information in an attempt to make sense of how it will impact their financial decisions.

The auto loan industry is massive and chances are that if you are a financial institution, you are also in the auto loan lending game. As a lender, knowing ways to maximize your automotive financing portfolio and extending loans to qualified borrowers is of the utmost importance. Having a solid pulse on the auto finance market can help increase your financial institution’s auto loan portfolio.

If your financial institution works with a third-party vendor for your collections efforts, you know how important it is to ensure your partners perform at an optimal level. To properly evaluate whether your outsourced partner is performing at a high level, it’s wise to understand their company procedures and establish agreed upon benchmarks to measure their performance.

Financial institutions and borrowers alike have breathed a collective sigh of relief over the last decade as the U.S. economy has improved from the dark days of the Great Recession. Delinquencies are not what they once were thanks to an improved economy, job growth, and increased credit availability. However, the United States, and in turn, lenders, are not completely immune from delinquency issues.

Historically, there are a few key indicators that can signal a potential rise in interest rates. Perception of a robust economy, increased consumer spending, and high employment levels could all combine to lead to a hike in interest rates. Higher interest rates reduce disposable income (and therefore consumer spending), increase the cost of borrowing, hamper the speed of economic growth, and limit the rate of inflation.