This article first appeared in CU Today.
CU Today recently met with Allied's Vice President of Claims & Recovery, Tina Love, to discuss CAT planning and how credit unions can best keep ahead in protecting their institutions against natural disasters.
The increase in the frequency of natural disasters in recent years is testing CUs’ mettle, but they’re coming out of the events stronger and more prepared to address events in the future, one analyst insists.
“When I started at Allied Solutions 18 years ago, catastrophes weren't as prevalent as they are today,” said Tina Love, vice president of claims and recovery at Allied. “Every year we weren't dealing with a number of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and wildfires. Credit unions did not have the solid catastrophic event (CAT) plans they have today. In the last several years they have been forced to build out those plans and I think many are very sound right now.”
Love contends CAT plans began to improve following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and were refined after hurricanes Harvey and Irma battered the U.S. in 2017.
“Katrina was the catalyst, I believe. I think many credit unions along the Gulf Coast said, ‘OK, how about we do more planning. How about we create a plan, review our plan, and share our plan and check our plan and make it a living document. We need to check our plan every year, sometimes two and three times a year just to make sure that we’re prepared.”
Read the full article here.
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