Connect Archive

Mid-Year Economic Review...Hindsight Too Late for 2020: This year is certainly not turning out the way anyone expected. Check out this week's blog as Catalyst Corporate Senior Investment Officer Sarina Freedland takes a look at the current economic cycle – COVID-19 crisis and all.

Nationwide Coin Shortage Puts Orders on Hold: Grabbing a handful of change from the console of your car to pay for your next cup of coffee in the drive-through lane might be more important than you realize. Limited coin production by the U.S. Mint and limited coin circulation by consumers, businesses and financial institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a nationwide coin shortage. Learn more.

Economic & Payments Forum Goes Virtual: After four decades of providing action-oriented, bottom-line sensibilities for credit union planning, Catalyst Corporate’s Economic & Payments Forum is moving from center stage right to your desktop – or possibly your laptop.

Training Webinars: ACH Origination - Rules and Regulations (July 8), TranzCapture for Teller with Real-Time EWS Demo (July 9), TranZact Basics (July 15), Student Loan Program Overview 2020 (July 20) and Cash Services (July 22).. 

Catalyst CEO Talks Innovation at Cornerstone Roundtable: Increased access to the Central Liquidity Facility and acquisition of an industry-leading payments company were among innovative initiatives highlighted by Catalyst Corporate's CEO Bruce Fox during a recent edition of the CEO Roundtable program. Hosted by the Cornerstone Credit Union League, the program offers credit unions important updates in the COVID-19 environment. 

Strong Loan Participation Sales May be Key to Balancing Amid Uncertainty:
Maintaining strong liquidity while increasing lending can be a challenging dynamic, especially as the nation attempts to recover from a global pandemic. To accomplish this, an increasing number of credit unions are turning to loan participations. Here's what you need to know about loan participations, including the latest trends and key observations.

Negative Interest Rates...Never Say 'Impossible': The COVID-19 pandemic – and its sudden, yet lingering presence – has taught us that nothing is impossible. Credit unions have been forced to reexamine 2020 projections to include a new realm of possibilities. Should those possibilities include negative interest rates?

Training Webinars: ACH Receipt - Rules and Regulations (June 24), CUBG's Making Progress with Problem Loans (June 25), ACH Origination - Rules and Regulations (July 8), TranzCapture for Teller with Real-Time EWS Demo (July 9), TranZact Basics (July 15) and Cash Services (July 22). 

Catalyst Announces Corporate CU Payments Consortium: Catalyst Corporate, Alloya Corporate and Vizo Financial have united as joint owners of the payments fintech Aptys Solutions, LLC to provide state-of-the-art payment services to credit unions nationwide. Following its recent acquisition of the Georgia-based real-time and electronic payments provider, Catalyst Corporate sold portions of its ownership, establishing this first-of-its-kind payments partnership.

Checkpoint #3 From the Road to Faster Payments: Unlike many business operations, the COVID-19 pandemic has done little to slow down the nationwide faster payments initiative. If anything, the need for instant payments is stronger than ever. Check out this week's blog for updates from the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Faster Payments Council and more!

Summer Training is Right Around the Corner: Beat the heat with Catalyst Corporate's online summer training. We're rolling out 11 live training webinars to help credit unions learn more about our services. These include demonstrations of our TranzCapture deposit services and real-time fraud protection.

Training Webinars: Domestic Wire Service (June 17), ACH Receipt - Rules and Regulations (June 24), CUBG's Making Progress with Problem Loans (June 25), ACH Origination - Rules and Regulations (July 8), TranzCapture for Teller with Real-Time EWS Demo (July 9) and TranZact Basics (July 15).

Learn from the Fed...Think Differently About Deposit Pricing: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a near zero rate environment wasn't on the radar for the first quarter of 2020. How should credit unions navigate this new economic climate? In this week’s blog, Catalyst Strategic Solutions Senior ALM Consultant Christopher Uhl suggests taking the Fed’s lead by thinking differently about deposit pricing. 

Adding Technology Without Adding Employees – The Search for Efficiency: Mobility Credit Union has grown significantly over the past three years and expects that growth to continue. With their expansion, came a unique challenge: how to stay abreast of technology, without adding personnel. Learn more about what led Mobility CEO Ron Perry to Catalyst Corporate’s ATM Capture, Mobile Capture and Teller Capture deposit services.   

Take Part in Tomorrow's Contingency Communication Exercise: Catalyst Corporate will conduct a Contingency Communication Exercise tomorrow, June 10 at 10 a.m. Central Time. If you haven't already, please be sure to update your Contingency Communications contacts in TranZact. 

Training Webinars: TranzCapture for Branch Demo (June 11), CUBG's Commercial Loan Underwriting in the Time of COVID (June 11), Domestic Wire Service (June 17), ACH Receipt - Rules and Regulations (June 24), CUBG's Making Progress with Problem Loans (June 25), ACH Origination - Rules and Regulations (July 8) and TranzCapture for Teller with Real-Time EWS Demo (July 9). 

Catalyst Corporate Purchases Aptys Solutions: Catalyst Corporate recently announced the acquisition of Aptys Solutions, the leading provider of real-time processing and electronic payments solutions for correspondent service providers. The addition of this payments platform for ACH, wires, check and person-to-person payments positions Catalyst Corporate as the premier provider of multi-channel payments for credit unions. 

The Benefits of Bank Notes: An extended low interest rate environment can wreak havoc on portfolio returns and return on assets. As a result, credit unions may want to consider adding non-callable investments to their portfolio. In this week's blog, Catalyst Corporate Director of Brokerage Services Zane Wilson sheds light on bank notes, an underutilized investment option.

Second Quarter SCAN Now Available: Check out the latest from Catalyst Corporate with the Q2 2020 SCAN – hitting member mailboxes shortly! This issue includes highlights from this year's online annual meeting, need-to-know information on ACHOne and more!

Contingency Communication Exercise Next Week: Catalyst Corporate will conduct a Contingency Communication exercise Wednesday, June 10 at 10 a.m. Central Time. Please ensure Contingency Communications contacts are updated in TranZact prior to the exercise. 

Training Webinars: TranZact Administration (June 3), TranzCapture for Branch Demo (June 11), CUBG's Commercial Loan Underwriting in the Time of COVID (June 11), Domestic Wire Service (June 17), ACH Receipt - Rules and Regulations (June 24), CUBG's Making Progress with Problem Loans (June 25) and ACH Origination - Rules and Regulations (July 8).