TMG's Annual Meeting Goes Virtual

WASHINGTON-To help credit unions save money on their travel budgets, The Members Group (TMG) has decided to switch to a virtual client conference instead of its annual, in-person client conference. "We still want to keep our credit union clients informed, and we realized we could achieve the same ends in a more cost-effective way for them," said TMG's Georgann Smith. Another move that will help save credit unions money: extending expiration dates on credit cards, allowing CUs to put off having to reissue cards for six to eight months. That can mean a pretty big savings, she said, particularly for a CU that has had to reissue cards due to potential fraud. Cutting down on fraud is another way to help keep costs-both the tangible cost of reissuing cards and the intangible cost to a credit union's reputation. That why TMG recently brought card analysis in-house. "We recently completed a beta with Vermont Credit Union, and over a four-week period we saved them $20,000 in potential fraud."