Corporate Connection E-Magazine

Is it just me or did 2024 happen in the blink of an eye? Maybe it’s because I had a full year to embrace my new role as president/CEO of Vizo Financial. While I’ve been with the Corporate for many years, it’s been a privilege to make the move as leader of this organization and see how every part of our operations makes an impact for our credit unions. But I have a confession to make…my favorite part is getting to know our staff and members even better!

This past year, we’ve achieved so much in the cooperative spirit. We learned together at our own events (I always enjoy our Financial Conference, and I know many of you do as well) and other industry functions. We made strides in our communities through initiatives like the Financial Empowerment Grants and community involvement efforts. We navigated the challenges of changing interest rates, inflation and an election year, just to name a few.

On the financial side, we had a record year in earnings, and our capital levels remain significantly above what is considered “well-capitalized.” Because of the strong earnings year, we were able to pay out 75 percent of annual billings to our members that utilized more than five of our key products and services through our Member Incentive Credit (MIC) program. We also paid out a bonus dividend on PCC in December, giving back over $4.1 million in total to our capital members. We continue to strive toward providing excellent member service, and based on our member survey results, we are meeting our members’ needs, as we recorded our highest member survey score ever! I have nothing left to say other than thank you!

We gain a lot of value from these member surveys and, moving into 2025, we are focused on supporting our credit unions in areas they have indicated as current challenges or strategic goals for the coming year. One item of focus for us will be in the area of risk management. Vizo Financial will be offering a number of risk management solutions to support our credit unions in this ever-changing arena, including cybersecurity and social engineering, as well as penetration testing and vulnerability management. The other piece many of our credit unions are working on is trying to expand their membership. As announced in 2024, we now have an exclusive partnership with Vertice AI, which is an AI tool that allows credit unions to better understand and grow their membership. Our credit unions have a ton of data, and many don’t have the resources to effectively utilize it for strategic growth. The beauty of the Vertice AI solution is that it can provide credit unions of all asset sizes with an effective way to harness their data to market their value more effectively and grow their membership more strategically. Look for additional information and education surrounding both of these areas throughout 2025.

With all that said, I’m thankful for the many incredible experiences we’ve already had in my first year as president/CEO of the Corporate, but I’m even more thrilled to see what lies ahead. What will 2025 bring to credit unions? What achievements will we see come to fruition? How will we make collaboration a central focus to better our institutions and our communities?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but the possibilities sure are exciting…don’t you think? What I do know is Vizo Financial will be there for our credit unions as they navigate some of these goals and challenges in the coming year. We truly appreciate the partnership we have with all of our credit unions and thank you for your continued support. Finally, I want to wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Cheers to a wonderful 2025!

Wire Limits

Your credit union’s wire limits can be a major risk exposure to financial losses. Having your wire limits set too high can expose your credit union to additional unnecessary losses in the event of a fraudulent transaction, which continue to be on the rise. Vizo Financial strongly recommends that credit unions periodically review their wire history to confirm their wire limits with the Corporate are set to realistic levels, and the new year is a perfect time to do that.

Say your credit union has a total daily wire limit of $500,000 but has not wired more than $100,000 in a day over the past year. It would be beneficial for your institution to consider reducing your daily wire limit to lower your exposure from the potential of $400,000 in fraudulent transactions. Your credit union should also review the individual limits of each staff member with wire access.

In addition, please review who at the credit union has wire access and delete any individuals who are no longer employed at the credit union or should no longer have wire permissions.

Authorized Signers

Now is the perfect time to review your authorized signers. These are the people who are permitted to sign documents on behalf of the credit union for corporate forms and agreements, as well as account closure requests. To determine who is an authorized signer for your credit union, please review your copy of the Corporate Signature Authorization Form. If you need a copy, please contact our member services department.

If you need to make any updates to your authorized signers, we ask that you please fill out a new Signature Authority Certification Form, which can be obtained from the Forms section in Zephyr, or from our member services department. The new form will override any existing forms. Please return the completed form via email at msr@vfccu.org.

Zephyr Administrator Roles & Responsibilities

The new year is a good time to review your list of Zephyr administrators, and revisit the responsibilities and expectations associated with this role. Zephyr admins are the credit union's main person(s) who create and maintain Zephyr users for the institution and have the highest level of authority within the Zephyr system. As such, they are responsible for adding new users, updating additional users, setting/updating permissions, resetting user passwords, unlocking user accounts and reactivating/deactivating/removing inactive users. Each credit union needs a minimum of three Zephyr admins in order to make changes to roles and permissions of Zephyr users.

Vizo Financial and MY CU Services staff are not able to assist with these requests. This is designed to allow your credit union to maintain and monitor your Zephyr users without having to go through the Corporate. Therefore, if one of your credit union's users needs assistance with their Zephyr account or login, that person will need to contact your Zephyr admin(s) directly.

Zephyr User Permissions

We recommend performing a quick review of the Zephyr user permissions you’ve put in place for your credit union team members. If there is the potential that staff will need to perform Zephyr-related functions that they don’t normally handle due to an emergency situation, it would be advisable to grant those staff members the permissions and access they’ll need in advance.

Please keep in mind that permission changes require dual authentication from two Zephyr administrators. If connectivity becomes a problem and two are not available, you may be unable to provide new permissions to your users when needed.

For questions about any of these items, please contact us at (800) 622-7494.

But here at Vizo Financial, we pose an even greater question…did you know that the Corporate offers a way to address both your investment and liquidity needs? It’s true! It’s called SimpliCD, and the best part is that it makes managing both sides of your portfolio quite…well…simple!

Curious to know more about the SimpliCD solution? Then you’ll definitely want to check out this case study we conducted with Clearview FCU in Pittsburgh, Pa. In it, you’ll find out how SimpliCD works, the many features and options that you can use to customize your investment and liquidity journey and why Clearview FCU’s chief financial officer calls it their “old faithful” route.

Read the case study here: An “Old Faithful” Tool That Brings Simplicity to Investments & Liquidity

And for more information on SimpliCD through Vizo Financial, please contact a corporate account manager at accountmanagers@vfccu.org.

For the past several months, our education team has been hard at work creating a new Education Rewards Program for credit unions and their employees, and we're so excited to finally share the details with you!

As of January 2, 2025, everyone who attends a Vizo Financial workshop, conference or webinar will be automatically enrolled into the Education Rewards Program — don't worry, this doesn't mean you'll be getting a lot of emails! All it means is that we’ll be keeping track of your participation in educational opportunities over the year so we can award points to you and your credit union. Keep reading, and we'll explain everything!

How It Works:

For every workshop, conference and/or CPE qualifying webinar you attend, you'll earn points. Points will be earned for you as an individual and for your credit union. At the end of 2025, we will tally up all the points earned and provide rewards.

Credit Union Level Rewards

Credit union rewards will be given to the top 10 ranking institutions. The top five credit unions will receive free registration for four people to attend one of our workshops or conferences, while credit unions in positions 6-10 will receive free registration for two people. NOTE: This reward is good for a registration package with or without an activity; travel and lodging are not covered and will still be the responsibility of the credit union.

Individual Level Rewards

Individual rewards will be based on how many educational events/webinars you attend and the points you earn based on those events. The more you attend, the more points you earn and, ultimately, the greater value your reward will be. There are socks, Yeti tumblers, speakers and more on the line, so be sure to attend our events and earn those points!

Random Gift Card Drawing

For each event/webinar that you attend, you will be entered into a random drawing for a $100 gift card. One event equals one entry into the drawing. The more events you attend, the more entries you will receive! Then, at the end of each quarter, we will randomly select the winners.

Want to hear the best part? All you have to do is attend and participate in the webinars and events that we hold throughout the year (and encourage your colleagues to do the same!). We'll keep track of your points for you! Now, let's talk rewards!

It’s Time to Learn and Earn!

As we've mentioned, you’ll be enrolled automatically into the program as soon as you attend one of our events and/or webinars. We encourage you to read up on the full program details and rules – they’ll be important in understanding how everything works.

Now, we want to know…what are you waiting for? Check out our upcoming events and webinars to earn points for your institution. Start learning and earning today!

That's right! As your credit union's financial institution or correspondent, Vizo Financial has the ability to receive instant payment transactions sent or initiated through the FedNow Service and post them to your settlement account, overnight account or subaccount with the Corporate. As long as the participating financial institution has access to send instant payments via the FedNow Service, we can receive the payment and post it instantaneously.

This means your credit union can direct instant payments to your Vizo Financial account using the FedNow Service and have them post, well, instantly! Please note that this service is specifically intended for payments to your credit union’s account only and differs from the instant payments receive option your institution offers to members.

How It Works:

If a company, vendor or provider wishes to send instant payment transactions to your credit union via the FedNow Service and they use a participating sending institution with access to instant payments through the FedNow Service, your credit union can receive instant payments by providing them with Vizo Financial's routing and transit number (231387550), along with your credit union's full account number.

As a reminder, the credit union corporate or financial accounts that are eligible to receive instant payments are your settlement account, overnight account or a subaccount.

Receive Instant Payments (& More) for Your Members Too!

If you’re excited about receiving instant payments through your corporate credit union, why not offer the same convenience to your members? Through Vizo Financial, you can receive and settle instant payments for your members as well! The process works a little differently, but you can find all the details on settlement and receive services that you can provide can be found on our Instant Payments: The FedNow Service– your hub for all things FedNow Service.

To discuss your options even further, please contact your corporate account manager at accountmanagers@vfccu.org.