credit union

The “E” in DREAM Big Contest: Educate and Excite!

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When I was the VP Marketing for First Tech Credit Union I was in charge of the website. This is back in 1997 when websites were in their infancy. We paid an inordinate amount of money for the first one to be built (read, as much as my first home). My job was to keep the content fresh. We had pages and pages of marketing copy. But I wondered, was anyone reading it? When they land on the home page, where do they go next? Is our navigation working?

Microsoft (who was one of our SEGs) had just come out with some fancy software that could tell us just that. The guy in IT described it to me in this way “Imagine a field of freshly fallen snow, this software is going to show you the footprints in that snow so you can see the “path” people take when they go to your website.… Read more

CO-OP Shared Branch Network Surpasses Chase – Takes Number 2 Spot Among Consumer Financial Institutions

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More Than 1,800 Different Credit Unions Unite to Form Seamless and Secure Cooperative for In-branch Personal Banking 

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – The CO-OP Shared Branch network has passed Chase in number of branch offices, making the credit union cooperative the second largest network of financial institution branches in the country.

 CO-OP Shared Branch now totals 5,671 physical locations. No. 3 Chase has 5,567 branches as of July 18, according to FDIC figures. The credit union network added more than 400 branches during the past two years, when CO-OP Shared Branch surpassed Bank of America. The network is less than 500 locations away from No. 1 Wells Fargo, which has 6,150 branches.

“Shared branching is to credit union members what Uber is to passengers looking for a nearby ride,” said Todd Clark, President/CEO, CO-OP Financial Services. “It’s the best example there is of why credit unions are different than banks – they share!… Read more

Voluntary Mergers: The Stuff No One Says Out Loud by Guy Messick

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I get it.  You want to merge with a peer sized credit union.  Together you will have more scale, twice the number of branches, twice the membership size, twice the assets…twice, twice, twice.    Having all things twice should create the golden ticket of economies of scale.   But after the merger you seem to have twice the payroll but not twice the benefits.  What happened?   The dirty little details get in the way.

  1. If you don’t trim the payroll, you don’t save money. People are the highest cost of operations.   Unless you have fewer employees after the merger, you are not going to save money.   Are you willing to make those decisions?
  2. If you don’t trim the vendors, you don’t save money. The continuing credit union needs to quickly decide what vendor to use for each service.  Having multiple vendors for a service within a credit union does not create efficiencies.
  3. Be ruthless in you vendor selection.
… Read more

DREAM Big Contest!

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After last week’s interview with Kirk Drake, CEO of Ongoing Operations I bought a copy of his new book, CU 2.0: A Guide for Credit Unions Competing in the Digital Age. We are truly fortunate to have this book in our industry. How often do you see a “Credit Union” book on amazon.com?

We give it two-thumbs up, a gold star, the credit union Pulitzer prize.

In the beginning of the book Kirk makes a very valid point.  in 2008, just 9 years ago, we were handed the financial world on a silver platter. Massive bank failures, mortgage loan foreclosures, customers struggling to get credit they needed while the banks raised fees. And yet credit unions market share soared from 7% to 8%. We can probably contribute some of that to the “Bank Transfer Day” Movement led by a non-credit union member in response to her frustrating relationship with B of A.… Read more