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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.

Delinquencies in the auto loan landscape are the highest they’ve been in the past decade. According to the New York Fed's recent blog post, 2018 was marked by historically high levels of newly originated loans in the auto industry, with $584 billion in new auto loans and leases showing up on credit reports. At the end of 2018, more than 7 million American borrowers were behind on their auto loans by 90 days or more.

When a Collateral Protection Insurance (CPI) program is implemented correctly, the program protects the lender and borrower in the event a customer fails to update their auto insurance status. As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to crack down on unsavory insurance tracking tactics by banks and underwriters, your financial institution should compare program options and determine if traditional CPI or Hybrid CPI is the better choice for your risk management strategy.

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  Your aging CPI program have you worried? Could Hybrid CPI be the answer?

 Reducing borrower noise and lowering CPI premiums resulted in the creation of Hybrid CPI

The largest asset that a lender has is their loan portfolio. In order to mitigate the risk caused by uninsured collateral, lenders have several options to choose from in loan risk management programs. Not all programs are the same, so, your financial institution needs to carefully review the program which best fits your needs, considering the collateral being financed, the make-up of the loan portfolio, and the amount of risk your team is willing to assume.

We developed Hybrid CPI as an alternative tracking method to help our partners secure their collateral while maintaining positive member relationships and demonstrating to regulatory agencies that they are treating borrowers fairly. However, sometimes "out with the old and in with the new" is easier said than done, particularly when it comes to tried-and-true methods that lenders have been using for decades. It's not always easy for lenders to move away from their lender-placed comfort zone they're acquainted with and after all, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," right? Well, many of our clients found that by transitioning from the industry-standard CPI program to our Hybrid solution they were able to realize numerous benefits including increased cash flow, reduced delinquencies and repossessions due to premium add-on, and reduced program administration burden and reduced member noise.

Making the decision to outsource some or all of your financial institution's collections work is no easy task. Even when you recognize that your internal staff does not have the time, resources, or ability to efficiently keep delinquencies low, it can still be difficult to trust a third-party vendor, particularly in this day and age of cyber breaches and regulatory scrutiny. Sometimes, after weighing all of your options, outsourcing collections may be the best business decision. In many cases, third-party vendors who specialize in collections have the staff and resources to dedicate 100% of their time to curing your delinquent accounts—oftentimes at a less expensive rate than your team can accomplish in-house. However, if you've decided to take the next step and work with an outsourced collections provider, there are a few questions you should ask before you sign on the dotted line.

Most of us cringe when the phone rings, and we find ourselves on the receiving end of an uninvited sales call. Bill collection calls are even more unwelcome, but of course collection calls are inevitable if due dates lapse with no payment received.

When collection calls are unwarranted, there’s a fine line between those calls and harassing telemarketing calls. To protect consumers from unwanted and/or harassing telemarketing, the Federal Communications Commission enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which has expanded in recent years to cover newer technology like text messages.

Financial institutions are not immune from having to invest in technology. At some point, in order to remain efficient and serve your customers, you will be forced to adapt to and implement new technology.

Most businesses, financial institutions included, are always looking for ways to save money on basic operational costs. The goal is to run a lean and mean operation, right? Efficiency is the name of the game when you want to keep your shareholders—your members, in some cases—happy and, ultimately, pass on those cost savings to them in the form of lower loan interest rates and higher deposit account interest rates.

When it comes to collections, cutting costs can seem like an impossible feat when you have limited resources in staff, time, and technology. After all, there are only eight hours in the workday, and your collectors likely have a difficult time reaching delinquent borrowers during typical working hours. 

Before the Internet forever changed civilization, the only way to complete a course or receive training was in the classroom—also known as traditional learning.

Over the years, the landscape of learning has dramatically evolved, with technology enabling us to learn anytime, anywhere from a computer or a mobile device. As a result, blended learning programs were born, allowing us to create meaningful, real-world learning processes for all types of learners.