MONTREAL, Quebec-Researchers, innovators, credit union CEOs, and the executive board from the Filene Research Institute met with executives from Canada's Desjardins Group here as part of a meeting called big.bright.minds.
During the meeting, Filene's academic fellows reported on their projects, which range from changing financial behaviors at retirement to credit union opportunities in Latino families to advances in "customer experience" research.
The meeting also discussed innovations by Filene's i3 group and other ideas in the pipeline, including: Giving CD, where members earmark proceeds from deposits to support the cooperative movement; Joint Purchasing Initiative, where credit unions cooperate to slash their health insurance benefits costs; Responsible Rent Loan, where property owners and qualified renters connect through the CU; Share the Wealth, where CUs grow loan portfolios and boost fee income with home equity loan referrals, and The Leap, where members save money and the environment by going green.
