(Archive) GOLD 7.5 February 2008

New Themes Available

You asked for more options for Themes for It's Me 247, and we are glad to deliver! Now members can choose from five additional themes. Four are “Lite” versions of the existing Themes—instead of Blue Steel, check out Blue Steel Lite, for example. These Themes are a great option for members with computers with a lower bandwidth, who don't want to download the It's Me 247 graphics.

And for people who want a higher contrast Theme that is larger, brighter and has less graphics, check out “High Contrast.” The text is big and bright and easy on the eyes! Be sure to tell your members to take them for a test drive.

·               HINT: If you have a member who is having difficulty accessing online banking to choose one of the new themes, use MNUPDA #11 Update ARU/Online Banking Access then F17-Theme to set that member's color choice to one of the “Lite” themes. Otherwise, let your members know that they can set it themselves using the Preferences button in It's Me 247 online banking. (If you want to offer a “Lite” Theme as your standard for new members, you will need to set it as your default in MNCNFE #1 Online Banking VMS Configuration.)

Changes to “Satellite” Online Applications

(Coming February 27th)

We have completed some flow and infrastructure enhancements to make online loan applications launched from outside It's Me 247 online banking (such as from a rate board on your website) work properly.

·        247 Lender Pre-Approvals Enhancements - The first group of changes relates to pulling credit reports to process automated pre-approvals against your 247 Lender decision model. In order to provide the right information needed to run the model, a couple of extra fields were added to some of the application screens, and the system will now prompt to require certain data that is necessary to complete the pre-approval process, such as co-applicant income, date of employment, and date of residence. (Those new prompts would still only apply if you use 247 Lender to process pre-approvals.)

·        Requiring Authentication for Members - Another issue we needed to resolve was a problem when a member applied for a loan as if they were a non-member, without authenticating using their online banking username and password. Despite our best attempts to handle this automatically, it was causing a number of conflicts with member data that we just could not resolve any other way. Therefore, we changed the system so that if a member applies for a loan as if they were a non-member, as soon as we see a SSN/TIN that we recognize in your current member files, we issue the following prompt requesting members to log in using their It's Me 247 password.

In addition, the initial page that appears after a member clicks “Apply” on a Satellite rate board was adjusted to explain in a friendly way that members need to log in. For members that have never used online banking before, the page provides instructions about returning to your credit union's home page to log in to online banking and get their account set up.

·               IMPORTANT: This means that your staff will need to be prepared for the occasional question from a member that has never used It's Me 247 but now wants to apply for a loan online. Depending on how your credit union has deployed PIB and your normal procedure for getting members set up for online banking, you may need to walk a member through the setup process before they can complete their loan application. It might even be worth taking a look at the instructions on your website to make sure you provide clear information about how a member can get their online banking password set up.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Because they need to be implemented simultaneously for both online and self-processing CUs, the changes to online loan apps will actually be live as of Wednesday morning February 27, not with the rest of the release on February 18th.

Our Label Generator that we rolled out on MNRPTC has been very popular, and with the improved version in this release you will like to use it even more!

Now generate database files and create labels using a cleaner and more robust program that makes list generation and label creation a snap. Begin with MEMBER, MSHIST or MSNONBR or a file you have created as before. Then narrow down your results with use of easy-to-understand screens that walk you through making your selection criteria, including selecting which member characteristics you want and what kind of accounts you want these members to have. We've added new criteria such as Membership Designation and Marketing Club types and eliminated or consolidated other criteria to make it easier to gather just the members you need.

What you end up with is a list of members which you can export to a file for analysis with Report Builder. Or you can choose to print as labels to send out for your targeted marketing campaigns. And with that in mind we've even added a new feature that makes it easy to for you to have CU*BASE send this member data in a file to a selected vendor for a CU*Blitz campaign!

This versatile member list generator and label creator makes marketing campaigns and member communication a snap! Check it out in the same spot as before: MNPRTC #5, only now it has a new name “List Generator (Database and Labels).”

CU*BASE will now allow for a separation of duties between the loan officer who approves the loan and the person who disburses the loan funds themselves. Using a new flag “Restrict approving LN officer from disbursing same loan” on the first screen of Loan Category configuration (MNCNFB #1), you can choose to block the disbursement of funds when creating the loan account. That way, you can allow certain employees to create the loan accounts, then use employee security controls to allow only specific authorized employees to disburse loan funds using MNLOAN #2-Disburse Member Loan Funds. 

Additionally, there is a new option from the “Booked” tab on MNLOAN #8, that will allow you to go directly to the MNLOAN #2 Loan Disbursement screen mentioned above. If the new flag is activated on the loan category, the employee that approved the loan won't be able to use this option to disburse the funds. (As before, the employee will know these loan funds have not been disbursed yet since the account and type will be displayed in red on the screen.)

·        Post a Tracker, even on a closed account. Once you enter a closed account through F13-Closed Members in Inquiry, click F21-Tracker Review to add any additional information you need to attach to the account.

·        Now all Procedures and Marketing Tips are Corp ID sensitive throughout CU*BASE. This project began with online banking product sales information in mind, but has been extended to include every instance of these procedure and tip messages.

·        An additional miscellaneous information field has been added to MNINVS #1 Work With CU Investments and MNINVS #14 Investment Inquiry. Although it was originally requested as a place to enter an account number, you may use this field for any information you'd like. The information entered in this field will not appear on any printed reports.

·        We've added another way to access the new Loan App Statistics Inquiry feature that was recently added as MNLOAN #13. Now you can also access it from the Loan Dashboard as well. View statistics on the number of booked, pending and denied applications by selecting F17-Activity Tracking from the Loan Dashboard and then F14-Stats.

·        Dividend Quoter has been changed to handle certificates a little differently. Instead of the misleading “Annual Yield,” the main Dividend Quoter screen will display the same calculated APY that you see on Rate Inquiry. This is calculated using the minimum deposit amount and the default term from the CD product configuration. The only time this will be recalculated on the Dividend Quoter screen is if you enter a different rate (no other setting changes, such as amount, or term, dividend payment frequency, or calc. type, etc., will affect this figure.)

·        Teller Processing will now display a warning message if a teller attempts to post an IRA withdrawal using the “normal withdrawal” code on a member that has not yet reached age 59 ½.  This applies to Traditional and SEP IRA plans.