e-Weekly
January 28, 2009
League Reports Invest in America Auto Purchase Program Update
The Invest in America Program which offers credit union members special discounts on top of the best deals that General Motors (GM) and Chrysler offer is off to a very strong start. Over the past 30 days, those companies have both thrown a great deal of energy into promoting these deals. Preliminary numbers from GM and Chrysler indicate that each of the companies is selling over 1,000 vehicles per week through these programs. The media has also shown a great deal of interest in this new partnership and auto dealers have begun to incorporate credit union discounts into their advertising.
Initially the program was designed to require a “Participation Agreement” or “Letter of Intent.” That requirement has been done away with and, at this time, every credit union in the country is automatically included in the program unless they wish to opt out. Credit unions will not be required to sign a participation agreement to make these discounts available to their members.
However, the Invest in America Program is structured to reward credit unions that do commit to support the program. So a non-binding opt-in form has been created and made available in the Credit Union Support Center at www.lovemycreditunion.org. The purpose of the form is two-fold. It permits the quantification of credit union support for the program in terms of number of credit unions and members. Although credit unions will not be required to complete this form to participate, as an incentive to opt-in, participating credit unions’ employees will be eligible to receive employee pricing on the purchase of any GM vehicle from now through February 28, 2009. Instructions on how to receive this benefit will be provided when the opt-in form is accepted.
Another question that several credit unions have asked is regarding the status of Ford, and their participation in this program. While Invest in America continues to reach out to Ford, at this time, there is no clear indication that Ford will participate with a discount offer for credit union members. Some credit unions have elected to offer their own incentives to members who purchase a Ford or for that matter a GM or Chrysler vehicle.
League CTO John Morawski Profiled in Credit Union Business Magazine
Credit Union Business Magazine recently ran a three page feature highlighting the career and accomplishments of League Chief Technology Officer John Morawski. The article began by recounting John’s career, but went to print before it could incorporate his most recent accomplishment, completing a course on “ethical hacking.”
The author of the article captured John’s viewpoint on what the future of credit union technology might look like. That discussion ran from mobile banking via cell phone to web 2.0 topics to financial literacy for tech savvy youth. John’s view of the future draws heavily on his practical experience working with credit unions doing technology audits and his deep knowledge of technology and the credit union industry.
The article can be viewed by clicking on this link which leads to a pdf of the article on the Credit Union Business Magazine web site.
CUNA Mutual Offers Valuable Advice Regarding Heartland Data Breach
CUNA Mutual Group is providing guidance and recommendations to its Plastic Card Insurance policyholder credit unions in response to another large-scale data security breach, which could be one of the largest ever reported.
Recently, Heartland Payment Systems, Princeton, N.J., reported it was the victim of a security breach within its processing system some time in 2008. Heartland is a third-party card processor used by 250,000 merchants nationwide. Visa and MasterCard have confirmed full magnetic stripe data from a significant number of credit and debit cards has been compromised, said Chuck Cashman, CUNA Mutual Plastic Card Insurance product executive. “Although the exact number of affected cards is not known, it is expected to be many millions. Card-issuing credit unions and their members will be impacted by this breach,” Cashman said.
In October, CUNA Mutual notified Visa and MasterCard of higher-than-normal fraud activity after credit unions began informing the insurer of a spike in plastic card fraud and related activities. “CUNA Mutual Risk Management detected that something big was happening,” Cashman said. “We reported our findings to both card associations to help facilitate an investigation to determine if a breach had occurred and, if so, its origin. It seems our worst fears are coming true, but we are relieved that it’s finally been solved.”
Visa and MasterCard are alerting card issuers of the specific card numbers that were compromised. In addition, CUNA Mutual recently sent a RISK Alert to its nearly 5,000 Plastic Card Insurance policyholders. The alert provides recommendations for credit unions to consider in order to mitigate losses.
According to Cashman, CUNA Mutual has already taken a number of proactive steps in the company’s ongoing efforts to help credit unions manage their plastic card program risks. These include two related RISK Alerts issued in late 2008 when fraud activity spiked; a Webinar offered in November and viewed by more than 600 credit unions; a questions and answers document; and talking points to assist credit unions in discussing card fraud with local media.
More information can be found in CUNA Mutual’s Credit Union Protection Resource Center, a value-added benefit reserved for policyholders at www.cunamutual.com. Policyholder credit unions that have experienced a loss or have additional questions should contact CUNA Mutual’s Credit Union Protection Response Center at 800-637-2676.
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