Strunk at the 2022 IBA, NBA, OBA & WBA Annual Convention

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Strunk was pleased to attend the 2022 Idaho Bankers Association, Nevada Bankers Association, Oregon Bankers Association & Washington Bankers Association Annual Convention celebrating everyday heroes at the beautiful Coeur d’Alene Resort in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho July 11-13. These four state associations joined forces to put on what was an exciting and informative event, set in the most idyllic of locations.

In addition to the many engaging sessions presented by the association, attendees were able to enjoy activities at the resort which included a golf outing on Coeur d’Alene’s famous course with a floating green. Strunk team members enjoyed catching up with familiar faces and meeting many new ones. The highlight of the week was certainly the boat ride across the Coeur d’Alene lake to attend dinner as a group on the final evening.

Strunk introduced Quilo to this audience for the first time. Quilo is an all-digital loan and payment platform for community banks to offer POS financing direct to their account holders. Additionally, there is a merchant component of the program that allows banks to provide Quilo to their merchant customers as an additional revenue stream.

Customers will experience stress-free, instant access to funds via the digital experience online and on mobile devices, while banks will enjoy an ROA up to 5%. Bankers were excited to learn about this new program that is truly a win-win for account holders and bankers alike.

For more information on Quilo, visit https://strunkaccess.com/landing-pages/quilo/.

How can vendor risk tiering improve vendor risk management?

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Understanding which providers represent the greatest “threat criticality” is an essential feature of any effective vendor risk management program, which is necessary to reduce risk and preserve business continuity. Vendor tiering allows for the implementation of this rating system that classifies vendors and doing so also imposes tighter security requirements on them.

You may improve your vendor risk management program, increase security, and build a more resilient business with the aid of vendor tiering. Vendor risk tiering improves vendor security and compliance. It makes it possible for your vendor management team to identify the vendors that offer the most risk and devote more time and effort to enhancing compliance. This enables them to streamline vendor risk management and concentrate on the areas that need the most attention, all the while making sure that any vendors you engage with adhere to the controls that need to be put in place.

Vendor risk tiering will also improve the onboarding process by incorporating vendor risk management in the onboarding process. Vendor risk tiering is essential for achieving your goals because it gives organizational structure and makes it simpler to evaluate vendors and guarantees that an efficient vendor risk management is in place.

 

Installment Lending Made Easy for Banks

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How easy is it for your customers to get an unsecured loan from your bank using your underwriting criteria? Many banks provide an online application form for consumers to fill out that can be four to six pages long. Then someone at the bank reviews the data, pulls a credit bureau report, and decides whether or not the loan will be made and on what terms. This process is cumbersome, inefficient, and very costly. So costly that many banks don’t even make loans for less than $2,000.

Industry reports show that 75% of consumers want to borrow money between 5:00 pm and 9:00 am each day…when your bank is closed. So how can the underwriting, funding, collection and reporting process be automated to make these loans profitably when consumers want the money?

Bring on Quilo…Quick Installment Loans. Quilo is a lending tool that allows your bank to make instant installment loans easily and profitably right from your website. The turnkey solution is easy to implement, monitor, and it will generate new customers as well. When was the last time you had a lending solution that provided a huge competitive advantage over your competition? How about Quilo for small businesses as well?

To see how Quilo will work for your bank contact Strunk at info@strunkaccess.com or 816-225-8793 for a 45 minute web demo.

Don’t Take Your Eye off of your Overdraft Program

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With all that is going on in our world, it is more important than ever before for the community financial institution to stay focused on the overdraft programs they offer. Account holders that utilize these programs and follow the guidelines properly should not fear that they will lose access to a valuable benefit of their checking account. There are several things that should be considered when administering an overdraft program.

Strunk’s ODP Manager offers helpful information that your organization can use to properly run a successful program. The Status Tracking report has information on the annual dollar amount of overdraft fees charged per active checking account and the annual amount of NSF fees charged per active checking account. Your organization is able to separate out OD fees from NSF fees through the daily file that is uploaded into the software. The program is also able to track waives and refunds so that your organization may track fees charged versus fees received. This would also help to capture the total annual dollar amount consumers receive in overdraft coverage compared to the amount of fees charged.

Strunk Heavy OD Users report will illustrate the prevalence of frequent users of overdraft. The Utilization Analysis and Opt-In Impact reports show the share of active checking accounts that are opted into overdraft programs for ATM and one-time debit transactions and those that have limits on their accounts.

Please contact Strunk at support@strunkaccess.com to see how ODP Manager might assist your organization in running a more effective and efficient overdraft program.

 

How Can Strunk’s Vendor Manager software help you understand which vendors receive customer data and what type of data they receiv

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Vendor Management has been a concerning issue for financial institutions for some time.  Regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council are scrutinizing how financial institutions (FIs) manage their outsourced vendors.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has declared that an institution can “outsource a service, but not the duty,” implying that financial institutions have the responsibility for compliance.  Because of this, it makes proper vendor management a critical duty for financial institutions, which must hold vendors to certain requirements.  It is important to understand which vendors that you engage with will have access to your customers data and what type of data will they have access to.

Risk is always present, recognizing and controlling the hazards associated with the vendor with whom a financial institution does business necessitates regular monitoring and review.  Strunk has created an area to capture what type of data that each one of your vendors collect.  Strunk’s Vendor Manager software also helps you mitigate your exposure by capturing the threat, likelihood of the threat, risk, and what control does the vendor have for that risk.  Monitoring these areas effectively will help prevent from operational disruptions, reputational loss, matters requiring attention, consent orders, litigations, and fines.

Automatic Uploads to ODP Manager

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ODP Manager depends on updated information from an extract file created by your core processor. This daily file is imported and updates the hosted ODP Manager software so that letters can be generated, and reports reviewed. Each user of the software can manually import this extract file by selecting the file to upload and committing the account data. In addition to this option, Strunk also allows institutions to set up an automatic upload process.

If your institution has the core extract file set up to generate automatically, you may be eligible to use the Automatic Upload. In addition to your extract file generating each day automatically to a specific location, there is a one-time setup process. During setup, a client that performs the upload will be installed and the user and file variables specific to your institution will be configured. Then a scheduled task will be created to initiate the import process after the extract file is updated and before your users go to work.

Your users will still retain the ability to manually import the daily data file if the scheduled process does not run as expected. Once the import has completed, the Automatic Upload process will send an email to your users – alerts can be sent to specific individuals or to a specified group email address.

Making this change should make your file import process more efficient. Get ready to benefit from immediate access to the updated ODP Manager information as soon as your users start their day. Please contact Strunk Support at support@strunkaccess.com with any questions or to find out more about using this feature.

Overdraft Privilege Provides a Solution for Charging Multiple NSF Fees

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When a merchant transaction is presented for payment from a consumer account and is refused due to the customer’s insufficient funds to cover the transaction, financial institutions typically charge an NSF fee. When a merchant tries to present the same transaction again in order to recover the denied funds, he or she may be charged a re-presentment NSF fee. If a depository institution receives this type of repeated merchant payment transaction more than once, the depository institution may levy multiple NSF fees. If an Automated Clearing House (ACH) or other item is presented for payment and is denied owing to insufficient funds, certain financial institutions will levy an NSF fee for both the original presentment and each subsequent representation.

In recent class action lawsuits against financial institutions, the removal of key clauses pertaining to the assessment of representation fees was considered to be a violation of contract. Some lawsuits have been settled, with customers receiving refunds and legal fees.  Additionally, state, and federal financial regulators are reviewing DDA agreements searching for potential legal, regulatory and UDAP risks. With these potential risks it is important to review your deposit disclosures and contract language to ensure the way NSF fees are charged is being communicated clearly and consistent to what a consumer could reasonably expect.

This is a great time to make sure that you review your accounts and all of your customers/members that are eligible for Overdraft Privilege should be added to the ODP program unless they have opted out of the program.  By doing this it will minimize your risk for NSF fees being represented, because if your customers/members have an Overdraft limit their items will be considered for payment instead of returned.  Paying the item instead of returning it will ensure that the financial institution minimizes its risk for NSF re-presentments because the item is not returned.  Also, overdraft privilege provides a better service to your customers/members because they will not be faced with potential late fees, retailer fees and damage to their credit from returned items.

Accept Electronic Consent to Opt In for Regulation E

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ODP Manager helps you distribute your Consent Form for Overdraft Services to your customers that have not already opted in for Reg E by including the opt in form with Welcome letters, Reinstatement letters, and the Reg E Opt-in Followup letter. This makes it easy for customers that would like to opt in by mail, but there are three other methods for a customer to opt in: in person, by phone, or electronically. The Reg E opt in form will direct your customers to the appropriate mailing address, phone number to call, or to visit a branch, but are you prepared to accept an electronic response?

ODP Manager includes a feature which can assist you in obtaining your customer’s electronic consent to opt in to ODP coverage for ATM and everyday debit card transactions. Strunk can create a Reg E opt in form and Reg E opt out form that mirrors the content in your ODP Manager letters. You would then add links to these forms to your website.

When your customer visits your website and completes either the Consent Form for Overdraft Services or the Consent to Opt-Out, they will receive an email confirmation of their Reg E election. Also, this response will be tracked in ODP Manager and can be emailed to a designated email address at your financial institution.

Your ODP Manager users will review the new responses in ODP Manager, export a list of accounts that need an update to their Reg E election, and perform the appropriate maintenance in your core software – updating the account record to either opt in or opt out the customer’s requested account. By default, the hosted ODP Manager software displays new responses that have not been reviewed and exported. Prior submissions are also retained to allow your users to review previous responses.

If you would like to set up ODP Manager to accept electronic consent to opt in for Overdraft Privilege coverage for ATM and everyday debit card transactions, please contact Strunk Support at support@strunkaccess.com with any questions or to find out more.

Bankers: How to Make Consumer Loans Profitably

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For the past 40 years banks have refrained from making small dollar consumer loans due to the unprofitable nature of doing so. Industry experts say it costs anywhere from $85-$100 to book an installment loan and the interest received wouldn’t cover the expense. Even though in the 1990’s banks starting charging an application fee to cover this expense most bankers cringe when asked to make an $800 consumer loan…until now.

Quilo allows financial institutions to underwrite, fund, collect, and report the loans for around $.85, not $85. The smart phone lending tool gives instant access to installment loans from your bank 24/7, in the back pocket or purse of your customer.

The digital lending solution lets consumers apply via your website in about two minutes. Then they use the Quilo app to pay down or pay off other bank’s credit cards, replenish their checking account for recent debit card purchases of over $250, or get a virtual prepaid MasterCard to be used for online or POS purchases.

It can be used anywhere Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay is accepted, added to your digital wallet, or added to your online account at any merchant. The reloadable card is easy to use and the loan program is easy to manage.

Bankers are familiar with digital banking on the deposit side but not lending. To see how Quilo can be a huge competitive advantage for your bank contact Strunk at info@strunkaccess.com or 800-728-3116 for a 45 minute web demo.

The Importance of Employee Training for your Overdraft Program

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Does your front-line staff have a biased opinion regarding overdraft privilege and present it in a negative tone?  Is your front-line staff having a hard time explaining overdraft privilege to your customers/members and not really sure what to say to them? If you haven’t had a chance to listen to your employees’ present overdraft privilege to your customers/members, especially Reg. E, Strunk recommends doing it now.  Your staff should explain overdraft privilege and its options to your customers/members in a clear, consistent, compliant, and impartial way.

Sometimes front-line employees do not understand the true benefits overdraft privilege can provide to the customer/member.  Some employees often have a bad perception of overdraft privilege because they associate it with disgruntled or confused account holders. This misunderstanding is one of the main reasons why overdraft privilege training and education are so important!  It is important to provide your employees with a script on how to present overdraft privilege and the benefits of opting into Reg. E. Employees that have practiced and memorized a customer/member-focused overdraft privilege and Reg. E script, ensure that the approach is compliant, succinct, and easy to grasp.

Using the technique of allowing the customer to choose how the financial institution should manage a transaction that would overdraw the customers/members account before the due date ensures their happiness and loyalty.  Strunk’s Overdraft Privilege training will provide a clear understanding of the overdraft program and provide consistent talking points to your employees.  After overdraft privilege training your employees will be equipped with correct and thorough knowledge regarding your program.  Strunk will ensure your employees are equipped with a non-biased, clear and compliant script that provides account holders accurate information so they can make the best decision possible for their situation.  Overdraft privilege training will increase your employees’ confidence as a result of this approach, which will boost their performance, productivity, and level of service to your customers/members.

 

An independent certified public accountant has examined Strunk’s operations and found them to be in compliance with the AICPA’s Trust Service Principles. It was determined that Strunk meets the Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy criteria for SOC 2 established by the AICPA.