What I Took Away from NCUCA 2026

I just wrapped up the 2026 National Credit Union Collections Alliance conference in Las Vegas. It was great catching up with familiar faces and making new connections. The credit union community is genuinely one of the most collaborative industries I've been a part of, and this conference reinforced that. People share openly. They want to help each other get better. That spirit was alive and well at the Bellagio this year.

I want to share some honest takeaways — not just the highlight reel, but the real conversations that stuck with me. Here's what stood out.

The Sessions Were Strong, and AI Was Everywhere

NCUCA draws a passionate crowd, but this year felt like a turning point. The main stage lineup covered a lot of ground: regulatory updates, economic outlook, strategic planning, bankruptcy law changes, digital-first recovery. The quality was consistently high. But the thread that ran through almost everything was AI. Not in a buzzword-bingo way. In a "we're actually doing this" way. Session after session tackled practical AI applications in collections, from automating back-office operations to using predictive analytics to intervene before accounts go delinquent to rethinking pricing models entirely. The message was clear and consistent: this isn't coming. It's here, and the credit unions that move now will have a real edge.

Credit unions aren't just exploring AI anymore. They're jumping in.

The Conversation Credit Unions Need to Have About Recovery

Now here's the part I can't stop thinking about.

I had many conversations with credit union leaders during the conference, and a pattern kept emerging. When it comes to vehicle recovery and remarketing, the prevailing approach is still: assign the case to a forwarder and hope for the best. Throw it over the fence. Move on.

And I get it. Collections teams are stretched thin. Delinquency is climbing. You're juggling regulatory pressure, staffing challenges, and member relationships. The forwarder handles the messy part so you can focus on everything else.

But here's the problem: you don't know what you don't know.

When the assignment leaves your hands, so does the visibility. How long did it take your forwarder to locate the vehicle? What was the condition at recovery? Did the lien check come back clean before remarketing, or did you find out about a title issue after the fact? Are you comparing performance across your service providers, or are you just trusting that it's being handled?

These aren't hypothetical questions. They're the ones that cost credit unions real money and real member trust when something falls through the cracks.

Data Doesn't Mean Replacing Your Partners

I want to be clear about something: having better data and visibility into your recovery pipeline doesn't mean you need to blow up your forwarder relationships. It means the opposite. It means you can finally evaluate those relationships with actual performance metrics instead of gut feeling. It means you can:

• Strengthen your forwarder relationship using shared data and accountability

• Evaluate new ones with an apples-to-apples comparison instead of guesswork

• Run A/B tests across service providers to see who's actually delivering faster recoveries, cleaner titles, and better outcomes

• Have the data in your corner when it's time to negotiate contracts, justify budget, or report to the board

The credit unions that are winning in recovery right now aren't the ones doing everything themselves. They're the ones who partnered with technology that gives them the visibility and insights to make informed decisions, and then used that information to hold their entire ecosystem accountable.

Looking Ahead

If there's one thing I'm taking back to my desk, it's this: the credit union industry is ready for change. The sessions made that clear. The conversations made it clearer. Whether it's AI in collections, digital-first recovery strategies, or simply demanding better visibility into the vendors you already work with, the appetite is there.

The question isn't whether to evolve. It's whether you'll have the data to do it well.

If any of this resonates, or if we connected at NCUCA and you want to keep the conversation going, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a note at eschuerman@mbsicorp.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

‍