Five young credit union professionals from four different countries are each leaving The Bahamas with a scholarship that includes an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles for the 2020 World Credit Union Conference, which will be hosted in conjunction with CUNA July 19-22, 2020 in Los Angeles.

The World Council Young Credit Union Professionals (WYCUP) Program awarded its scholarships during the final general session of the 2019 World Credit Union Conference.

The 2019 WYCUP Scholarships were presented to:

• Kevin Lashley, Barbados
• Maureen Njoroge, Kenya
• Carla Oteiro Borré, Brazil
• Piotr Palka, Poland
• Micheli Thiesen, Brazil

The winners were selected out of 23 nominees who applied from across the globe. The WYCUP Scholarship program is open to nominees who are 35 or younger, have made significant contributions to their credit union or financial cooperative system and have the potential to make a global credit union impact. The WYCUP program has awarded more than 90 scholarships since 2001.

Preparing for cryptocurrency and cybercrime

From social media companies launching their own cryptocurrency to data criminals demanding cyber-ransoms from financial institutions—global security expert Mikko Hyponnen described the future financial landscape credit unions need to prepare for during the final general session of WCUC 2019.

Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, warned more and more banks and credit unions are being are targeted by cybercriminals, not to steal money. but data. They are holding the institutions’ member data hostage and demanding ransom amounts, but not in cash.

“They take over computers, the encrypt all the data and then they ask you to pay Bitcoins if you want to get your old files back," said Hypponen.

Hackers demand cryptocurrency because they can transfer it across thousands of accounts, according to Hypponen, making it impossible to track.                           ,”

Hypponen also used Facebook’s planned launch of Libra—its own cryptocurrency—as an example of how credit unions could see their traditional business models completely disrupted.

“Facebook has more users than what Mastercard, Visa and what China WePay have together. This is why it's a big deal. They are very powerful players in the area of finance—an area where they've never been before—and now they are making a move into the space, and it is likely to succeed," said Hypponen.  

The 2019 World Credit Union Conference, held in partnership with the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions, concluded Wednesday night with a Caribbean-themed closing reception at Atlantis Resort.

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