Field notes on AI for credit unions

Every vendor now says 'AI.' Here's how to tell which kind you're being sold, what to ask, and a simple decision tree for how hard to look.

A few real deadlines and events are coming up. Here's what each one asks of you, so the fourth quarter doesn't get away.

A core provider's annual report is full of impressive AI numbers. Some describe what the vendor does for itself, and some describe what you'd get. Knowing which is which matters before next week's conferences.

In April, the federal banking agencies left generative and agentic AI out of their new model risk guidance and promised a request for information. As of early October, it still hasn't appeared.

AI voice cloning has made the phone call, once a trusted channel for credit unions, a favorite tool for fraudsters. Here's how to adjust without making service worse.

A rewrite of Regulation B took effect this summer and removed a major fair lending theory. Before anyone relaxes, here's what it did not change.

There's no NCUA rulebook for AI. That doesn't mean there are no expectations. Here's what the public record says, and where the commentary disagrees.

A rate hike changes what every maturing certificate costs you to keep. The right answer depends on your own data, not a rule of thumb.

When TruStage took its network offline in July, credit unions across the country lost access to services their members rely on. One of them has now taken the vendor to court.

Four federal agencies, the NCUA among them, want to replace the 2023 vendor risk guidance with a version built around risk tiers. Here's what the proposal says and what to do while comments are open.

A roadmap lists activities. A strategy makes a bet on how you'll win. Here's why so many credit union AI initiatives stall after the first year, and a framework for building the real thing.

Valley Bank's new innovation unit is a bigger structure than most credit unions could build, but the problem it solves, too many AI vendor pitches and no consistent way to evaluate them, is universal.

KeyPoint Credit Union's results with an agentic AI platform are genuinely impressive. The more useful lesson is in how they got there, not just the numbers.

A growing share of fraud against financial institutions isn't coming from outside attackers. It's coming from employees who were recruited to help. Here's how the scheme works and where AI genuinely helps.

New research finds credit unions rate AI model risk as a lower threat than banks do. Given how fast AI is moving into lending decisions, that gap deserves a second look.

Europe pushed back its high-risk AI deadline, but the part of the law that did take effect this month points straight at credit scoring and lending decisions.

Jack Henry and FIS both closed out the year with AI showing up as a growing share of new business. Here's what's actually in those deals versus what's just marketing language.

Jamie Dimon is calling CEOs directly to build out an AI risk coalition spanning banking, energy, and other critical infrastructure. It's a signal worth reading even if you'll never be in the room.

New research from this earnings season names fragmented, messy data as the top blocker to expanding AI in financial services, well ahead of cost or talent. Here's what that means in practice.

A meaningful line is being crossed in banking right now: AI moving from suggesting an action to a person, to taking the action itself. Here's a sober look at where that line should sit for a credit union.

AI is quietly becoming core banking infrastructure, but the question of who's actually checking that it works correctly, and stays that way, doesn't have a clean answer yet.

A major European bank just committed up to €2 billion over three years to its data and AI foundation. The number itself doesn't translate to a credit union budget, but the reasoning behind it does.

The IMF just labeled AI-driven cyber risk a financial stability issue, not just an IT problem. That reframing matters for how credit union risk committees should be thinking about it.