Industry Insight

This generation’s unique engagement with finances and digital banking is reshaping the financial landscape, setting a new bar for experience, personalization, and standard expectations.

Just as third wave coffee emphasizes quality, craftsmanship, and sustainability in its approach to coffee production, community banking is undergoing a parallel evolution, focusing on personalized services, ethical practices, and technology integration.

By leveraging AI, banks and credit unions can provide more personalized, efficient, and insightful services that resonate deeply with their customers.

A rapidly changing business landscape meant that COCC had to find qualified staff to fill open positions while equipping managers with the skills and tools necessary to manage a hybrid workforce. We reacted quickly by adopting a variety of online tools, creating connection opportunities, and fostering an environment of belonging.

As the news coverage continues to surround possible attacks, C-suite Executives and Boards are now finding themselves actively engaged in asking the question, “What should we do to prepare?”

Working with your existing partners, particularly your core provider and a marketing specialist, can help your bank formulate its plan. Such consultation can provide insight on how your bank can achieve its goals strategically using available technology.

A company looking to gain from having highly engaged employees can adopt some of the above suggestions or adapt their current offerings to craft a meaningful and impactful total rewards program.

While financial institutions are looking for the best way to serve their customers during the coronavirus pandemic, many attackers are using the current environment for their benefit. Industries across the globe are witnessing an increase in malicious cyber activity as attackers use a variety of means to target organizations. Cyber criminals are using many of the same tactics they always use, but they are using COVID-19 to prey on fear and exploit individuals who are willing to help others and not anticipating a scam. The large amount of employees working from home has attackers on the hunt for insecure environments such as home networks, which often have less security defenses than what exists in the office. This leaves financial institutions vulnerable to cyber threats. Ransomware and malware continue to be among the most severe threats facing financial institutions. There have been reports of attackers standing up informational maps on the…

The novel coronavirus has made a sudden and immediate impact on branch banking throughout the country, shining a spotlight on the digital banking options presented by financial institutions. While a trend towards an expanded digital offering that can serve consumers and their banking needs is not necessarily new, it has never been more integral to the business models of financial institutions that have depended on their branch network. Well before we had even heard of COVID-19, digital banking had solidified itself as a prime channel for consumer. In 2019, 73% of consumer banking interactions occurred through the digital channels. Specifically, mobile has taken top billing with 42% of those interactions in 2019, up from 22% in 2015. This rise of the mobile app marks a key part of the customer experience. With online banking accounting for 21% of transactions, ATMs, telephone banking and branches split what’s left of the pie,…

Understanding the Need For a community financial institution, the benefits of working with business customers can extend beyond banking. Not only do these relationships grow the business, they can also solidify the institution’s ties to the community it serves. However, in order to begin exploring a deeper relationship with local businesses, an institution must be able to properly address and serve the unique banking needs of the business. For a small business, these needs often concern cash flow. According to the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Small Business Credit Survey Report on Employer Firms, 64% of the small businesses surveyed had faced financial challenges in the previous 12 months. These challenges included paying for operational expenses, repaying debt, accessing credits, purchasing inventory and supplies, and more. Meeting these challenges has a direct impact on the viability of a small business. By helping those businesses meet their needs to pay bills, easily collect…

Large core technology providers have been in the spotlight recently, often for the wrong reasons. Many community financial institutions find themselves frustrated with their core providers and their inability to keep up with the needs of a community financial institution. Legacy technology, lack of options, tedious integrations and inflexible service plague these large core providers and community institutions often feel left behind. This situation is all too common. Not all core providers are built the same, ideologically as much as technologically. At COCC, we focus on our clients. This focus is born from our corporate structure. We remain a client owned cooperative. Our Board of Directors comprises leaders from within our client base. So too does our Strategic Development Council, which helps guide our innovation strategy. The decisions that direct our future plans as well as our goals for growth, development, profitability and service are made not only with our…

While operating your core, security, infrastructure and other solutions in-house may give a sense of control over your process, forming a technology partnership with a trusted company has many benefits.

With robust functionality for all commercial loan business units, LoanVantage automates all critical functions performed by your commercial lending team, from prospecting and pipeline management through ongoing reviews and portfolio management.

Combined with next-generation information technology services, COCC’s open, collaborative, and consultative approach to FinTech integration enables our clients to better adapt to market opportunities while meeting unique needs and differentiating themselves in a highly competitive environment. With increasing levels of interest and commitment, financial institutions are finding value in adopting innovative solutions and business models formed in partnerships with FinTech players. COCC has a history of executing integration projects resulting in approximately 200 system integrations today. COCC’s industry-leading, modern suite of APIs is made available to any third party engaged by our client to develop integration with their core banking solution. FinTech integrations are achieved through COCC’s mature integration framework, enabling third party solution providers to build seamless integration with secure access to core. These APIs were designed to reduce development costs and increase speed to market. Beyond APIs, the core banking platform itself can be customized to meet unique…

The Value Behind a Defensible and Monitored Network For all financial institutions today, security has become a major component of a strong business strategy. Banks and credit unions simply cannot survive without addressing defense, detection, and risk management against the vast array of cyber threats that exist today. Security monitoring is a key component of this. “Prevention is ideal,” writes Dr. Eric Cole, SANS Institute fellow and instructor, “but detection is a must.” Detection is just one essential piece of the puzzle for every financial institution that hopes to thrive in a world where cyber attackers are ever-present and smarter than ever. Aside from the simple fact that hackers, fraudsters, and other adversaries are becoming more creative and driven, the financial industry faces a number of other challenges as well. Regulatory compliance, legal risks, and cost effectiveness all come into play when an organization devises their security strategy. The burden…