Author: Chip Filson

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A Comment on CEO Compensation

An observation on American business practice- I have lost the source.  Is the  issue relevant for credit unions?

During the past 30 to 40 years, the compensation of CEO’s has dramatically increased, relative to that of the average employee. Is the CEO’s proportionate contribution 100 or 1000 times greater than that of the average employee?

Many large American corporations are using distributive compensation process that reflect an employee’s relative power rather than an objective and ethical analysis of their relative contributions. Even Boards are unwilling to discuss this topic.

 

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An NCUA Board Agenda To Meet the Times?

When announcing the three agenda items for July’s solo board meeting, Chairman Hauptman closed with this affirmation: As always our mission is to protect the safety and soundness of the credit union system and we are best equipped to do this when we understand how credit unions interact with new technology and products.” 

While “new technology and products” may make interesting topics, the key to knowing if the agency is best equipped would be updates on the following issues:

  1. What is the status of the staff downsizing? The final number of departures?  Who fills the primary roles in the Chairman’s office and in agency critical responsibilities? What are the top priorities? What organizational changes have been made?
  2. What is the status of the examination cycle? How many credit unions will receive an annual exam?  How many will be deferred?  Exams are the primary tool that protects the safety and soundness of the system.
  3. Chairman Hauptmann expressed concern about increased credit risk. The first quarter data suggested improvement in most areas of financial performance. Can the E&I staff update the industry with specific trends or examples that the industry should be aware of?

This update would also be an opportunity to discuss the recent increase in liquidations including the abrupt closure of Unilever FCU on April 30.  Why is this occurring versus mergers or workouts?

  1. In the area of supervision policy, it would be helpful for updates from Regional Directors about their process for approving, or not approving, credit union purchases of banks. Several announcements of “definitive acquisition agreements” have been made by credit unions, only to have the initiative quietly dropped months later.  See Sabine Bank and TDECU’s announcement in June.  What are the criteria that credit unions must meet for purchase of a bank?

The Announced Agenda for Thursday’s Meeting

The NCUA’s three topics are briefings on the Central Liquidity Fund, NCUA’s Ombudsman, and artificial intelligence.  The first two would seem to be remote from any current issues.

The CLF has not made a loan since 2009.  In the liquidity challenges caused by the Fed rate runup in 2023-2024, all credit union borrowing went elsewhere.   The CLF continues to pay a below market rate to shareholders and to add to its retained earnings even though it has no risk.

The key to any future role is not a change by Congressional legislation (a repeated board excuse for inactivity) but rather the CLF’s willingness to work with its credit union shareholders on projects for member benefit.

As for the ombudsman briefing, I don’t recall this ever being a board agenda item.  Is this just to demonstrate an activity that DOGE missed?

Artificial Intelligence is a wide open topic.  Many credit unions are using bots for chat.  Some are using AI applications for internal edits and communication efficiency.  Several credit unions have announced investments in fintech AI initiatives.

It might be helpful to know how NCUA has used AI with specific cases and its effectiveness.  If the board topic is just a general presentation, that approach can be found at any credit union conference today by experts in the field.

The Role of Board Meetings

Public NCUA board meetings are an opportunity for accountability, agency management priorities and presenting a vision for how the agency and credit unions can work together.

It feels somewhat incongruous for a single chair, who is supposed to be overseeing the staff, to lead a dialogue to present different ways of thinking on topics that would arise from a full board.

In this time of government downsizing, unresolved NCUA Board status, and continuing economic uncertainty, a dialogue on the state of the Agency would be helpful and encouraging.

Will these topics meet that goal?  If the meeting falls short of this task, it might be helpful to ask credit unions about their issues for future meetings.

The Chairman recently took this approach on  crypto custody via  LinkedIn post.  It might be a way to stay relevant and supportive in NCUA’s mission of protecting credit union safety and soundness.

 

 

 

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Should My First Military Home be on the National Historic Register?

Anerica has a housing shortage.  Many different solutions are being offered.  During my initial assignment to the Navy Supply School in Athens, GA, the only available housing on arrival was a trailer home.

My wife who was seven months pregnant and I lived there for several months until base housing became available.  Little did we know that we occupied, albeit briefly, an example of America’s housing creativity from WWII as explained in An Unexpected Idea for Preserving America’s Mobile Homes. 

This ability of trailers to quickly mobilize wherever and whenever needed was again on display following the passage of the GI Bill. Look at aerial photos of postwar college campuses; chances are you’ll see rows and rows of trailers nearby, providing on-demand housing to new students and their families.

Today there are over 21 million manufactured housing homes.  Some are temporary, but most are permanent residences.

Home to 21 Million Americans

Recently the digital journal Next City posted a long article about how manufactured housing/mobile homes could become an integral part of solving America’s housing shortage.  Here are the opening paragraphs:

Punctuating the country is an unknown world of mobile home parks that are often seen but rarely recognized. These communities are everywhere: scattered along highways, in urban crannies in California, Florida, and the Sunbelt, on exurban territory from the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest, next to factories, farmland, mines and military bases. Blink and you’ll miss them. The National Register of Historic Places certainly has.

There is not a single mobile home or mobile home park in the National Register — a glaring omission that, if addressed, challenges the preservation field to join the fight for affordable housing.

Over the last hundred years, mobile homes have housed millions as and where needed. Today, they are home to 21 million people, or about one in every 16 Americans. They are legitimate and permanent parts of the American landscape. Even so, city officials, historians and preservation professionals have largely disregarded mobile homes, and their residents, as aberrations.

A Role for Credit Unions?

The article provides the history of the transitiion from “trailer” to mobile homes to manufactured housing and notes:

The truth is, mobile homes are not very different from the average suburban home. The vast majority do not move once they are sited, nor do their residents. Some 71% of mobile home residents own their homes, higher than the national homeownership rate for all forms of housing. The biggest difference is their affordability: On average, a new site-built home costs four times as much as a new “manufactured” home.

These manufactured home estates have become an attractive investment for private equity:

In recent years, some of the largest private equity firms, including Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, and The Carlyle Group, are making big “recession-proof” bets on mobile home parks. Between 2014 to 2022, investors purchased 800,000 lots, representing nearly 20% of all mobile homes — double the rate of private equity ownership of apartment units.

Some credit unions have been active in leding to this sector for years.  Credit Human in San Antonio developed a national speciality with manufactured housing sellers for financing these purchases.  They report holding 22,329 loans totaling $1.459 billlion at yearend 2024. These loans however, are different from the standard site-built, stand alone residence..

What is unique to mobile homes is that they are still classified as “chattel,” or moveable personal property — such as a car — rather than real estate. This means that not only do mobile homes decrease in value over time, but that residents, even those who own their home outright, must still pay rent on the land underneath.

And the private equity trend has brought new problems besides the traditional challenges of zoning and site ownership:

By increasing both lending and rental rates, investment firms are squeezing the vulnerable at every turn. As private equity moves in, costs and delayed repairs pile up. Parks purchased by investors have seen rents and fees balloon. Evictions have increased, as has wholesale destruction to make room for redevelopment. . .

One solution the article referenced is cooperative ownership.  However, the Next City article proposes putting long term mobile home locations on the National Register of Historical Places.  The idea in brief:

To potentially be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, properties must meet certain criteria, including historic significance to a time at least 50 years in the past. Given their contributions to mid-century American history, the argument for the significance of older mobile home parks is easy to make.

But the designation is not easy to achieve.  In the meantime credit unions can help sustain this housing option by financing and supporting the traditional buying and selling process that underwrites all home ownership.

The immediate opportunity would be to visit the mobile home sites in your community, talk with local dealers (if any) and become familiar with the financial needs of the residents.   It is a national need with local markets-a perfect fit for credit union solutions.

I’d be interested in examples from credit unions that have experience serving these members and their communities.

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Watch Today’s Texas Credit Union Commission’s Live Hearing: Starts at 10:00 EDT

Click on the link below to tune into the live hearing of the Texas Commission which oversees the Credit Union Department (CUD) and its approximately 160 state charters.  Here’s why.

  1. This nine person oversight board sets policy for the CUD.  Five members are “public” and four are credit union professionals.  It is a vital contrast to the current one person NCUA board.
  2. The agenda has several topics relevant for all charters. One is a new merger rule following events such as the Space City-TDECU merger debacle:  Recommendation for Proposed Amendments to 7 TAC, Part 6, Chapter 91, 192 Subchapter J, Section 91.1003 (Mergers/Consolidations) 
  3. Texas’ Commission demonstrates the power of a strong dual chartering system with independent credit union oversight.
  4. The meeting’s agenda covers multiple topics such as an update on the state credit union system, the status of CUD’s 2025 budget and plan, FOIA requests and legal updates–to name just a few.  The comprehensive agenda is an interesting comparison with NCUA board meetings which average three iopics.

An Oath and Ethical Standards

The CUD’s website is filled with information about its policies, rules, employment as well as records of the Commission’s  meetings.  Several observations:

All Texas credit union directors are required to take an oath of office  to sign and return it to the Department. The first sentence reads:  As a director I have a legal responsibility  and a fiduciary duty tp the members to administer the credit union’s affairs  faithfully and to oversee management. , , (emphasis added)
In the CUD’s policy manual there are three pages of Ethical Standards.  The subsections include Principles, Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics, Conflict of Interest, EqualOpportunity and Resrictions.  The CUD’s examiners and staff are well informed about fiducicary responsibilities.
The CUD’s annual budget is approximately $6 million and has an independent annual audit.

Contact Information for the Hearing

The Credit Union Department Commission Meeting is scheduled for Friday, July 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM  (central time zone)

The Agenda (link)

Microsoft Teams Need help?

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 234 324 784 323 7

Passcode: Tr2qH72w

Dial in by phone

+1 936-213-5778 United States, Waller

Find a local number

Phone conference ID: 773 558 893#

I’m looking forward to see how this public policy and oversight meeting is conducted for a state that has been a leader of the credit union movement.  

 

 

 

 

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Are America and its Credit Unions at a Tipping Point?

Much public discussion today debates whether the disruption led by the Trump administration is a turning point in history or just part of a cycle.

Many established institutions are confronting new financial and political realities.  Large legal firms, major universities, public and private media have  seen long held assumptions about their operations and purpose open to political and monetary challenge.

Credit unions are having “modest” internal debates about the propriety of mergers with million dollar payoffs to the initiators, increasing acquisitions of tax paying banks, and whether there should be any limits at all on financial services.  I say “modest” because most effort has focused on saving the tax exempt status even as future issues remain unaddressed.

A CEO at the World Credit Union Council meeting asks if it’s  time to question where credit unions are going (as reported by Frank Diekmann):

‘I’m here, in part, to make an appeal to all of us as cooperatives and as credit unions that it’s time for us to stand up again. For many of you, your credit union was rooted in a time where your community needed change, it needed support and it needed help. That might even be very recently.

But for many of our credit unions that have become more mature, we have perhaps become a little bit complacent about how we’re seeing ourselves play a role in supporting our communities. Once again, they’re needing us and the call to action is here,’ Wellington Holbrook, CEO of Vancity Credit Union World Council of Credit Unions

An Opportunity to Hear from Leadership

Tomorrow the Texas Credit Union Commission will hold one of its required public meetings beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the Department’s office. (see login information at end)

The Commission is the policy making body for Credit Union Department-CUD. The Commission is a board of five public members and four credit union executives appointed by and responsible to the Governor of Texas.

The mission  of this politically appointed group is to safeguard the public interest, protect the interests of credit union members and promote public confidence in credit unions.

Its members incude both credit union professionals and private citizens: Jim Minge, Chair; Becky L. Ames; Elizabeth L. “Liz” Bayless; David Bleazard; Karyn C. Brownlee; Beckie Stockstill; Cobb Cody; R. Huggins; David F. Shurtz and Kay Rankin-Swan.

Tomorrow’s meeting will be one of the few public opportunities for credit unions to hear how their appointed policy leaders assess current trends and events under their purview.

They have an important role not just in Texas, but nationally. NCUA’s solo board leadership considers public meetings as “only when needed” preferring to keep the industry updated on his views via social media posts.

Texas not only has a thriving and large state chartered credit union system.  It also has prime examples of two unsettling credit union trends: buying banks and self-serving mergers.

The Commission has a front row seat to both these events. How does the recent Space City-TDECU merger conform to their mission to protect the interests of credit union members?

This was an event marked by egregious self-dealing ($6.750 million bonus to CEO and two senior staff), conflicts of interests, $850,000 in payments by TDECU to the two principals of Space City and misleading information including use of its brand name.  (link)

At the very time this merger was completed, TDECU was on a downward financial spiral. It was denied, or withdrew its application to by the Many, La.-based $1.2 billion Sabine Bank (link) announced in April 2024.

There is no evidence in the Space City merger that the CUD in the words of mission acted: to safeguard the public interest, protect the interests of credit union members and promote public confidence in credit unions.

Is this the Commission’s View of the Future of Credit Unions in Texas?

In September 17 and 18, 2024 Houston Business Journal interviews, TDECU CEO Johnson was clear about his ambitions for the credit union and the coop system’s future:

TDECU — soon to be Space City Financial following its merger with Space City Credit Union — wants to become a top-20 credit union in the U.S. by 2034, President and CEO Isaac Johnson said. . .Iowa-based GreenState Credit Union is currently the 20th-largest credit union with $11.1 billion in assets, according to U.S. News & World Report. 

To reach its goal, Johnson said the credit union needs to continue focusing on inorganic growth and “take some leaps.” . .“To get to $11 billion within the next 10 years, it’s possible to do it through just organic growth, but upon studying those top credit unions, most of them got there through acquisitions, mergers and organic growth,” Johnson told the Houston Business Journal. “We cannot double down and just do it organically.”. . .

“The merger with Space City Credit Union is a signal to other credit unions that TDECU is open to additional mergers and acquisitions,” Johnson said. “The credit union industry is consolidating as regulatory burdens and other costs increase, a trend Johnson expects to accelerate. TDECU plans to be active in that environment,” he said. . .

“For Space City Credit Union, the merger is ideal from a succession-planning perspective as President and CEO Craig Rohden prepares to retire after leading the organization for 30 years. It also allows both credit unions to grow and scale at a time when regulatory burdens and the costs to compete with other financial institutions are increasing,” Johnson said. . .

“TDECU will focus on closing its merger with Space City Credit Union and acquisition of Sabine State Bank & Trust before making any more deals, Johnson added.

“As the credit union industry continues to shrink — and generally the banking industry continues to consolidate — we want to be that beacon to say, ‘We would like to partner with you. . .” Johnson said. . .

“Credit unions have historically focused on consumer lending, so having “credit union” in the brand implies a limited scope of what the organization may be able to do. With the word “financial,” it more accurately represents the full range of products and services TDECU offers,” Johnson said. . . .

“We must grow. If we do not grow, we will become one of those credit unions that are consumed or have decreasing membership,” Johnson said. “What we’re doing now is ensuring that we have an ongoing credit union for the next 100 years.”

Stand Up or ???? 

CEO Johnson’s  point of view is certainly one of several animating credit union leaders today.   What will the commission say about this overt institutional goal devoid of any reference to members or their best interests. Just institutional glory, dominance and national growth.  It should be noted that TDECU has its third board chair in the last four years.

Tomorrow’s Commission meeting will give Texas credit unions insight into the policy of their state regulator.  Will  Johnson’s philosophy of grow or die be addressed?  Or will the commission embrace the words of CEO Holbrook , “it’s time for us to stand up again.”

 Information to join the meeting:

The Credit Union Department Commission Meeting is scheduled for Friday, July 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM  (central time zone)

The Agenda (link)

Microsoft Teams Need help?

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 234 324 784 323 7

Passcode: Tr2qH72w

Dial in by phone

+1 936-213-5778 United States, Waller

Find a local number

Phone conference ID: 773 558 893#

 

 

 

 

 

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An Important History Note

From Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac on July 15,  2014, i.e. eleven years ago.

July 15 is the birthday of microbiologist Thomas Francis Jr., born in Gas City, Indiana (1900). T.F., as he was known to his friends, grew up in western Pennsylvania and studied medicine at Yale. He graduated in 1925. His early research projects involved bacterial pneumonia, but he was particularly interested in the study of viruses. He was the first American to isolate the human influenza virus.

He joined the University of Michigan in its newly formed School of Public Health in 1941. It was here that he developed the first flu vaccine, which used the dead influenza virus to provoke an immune response in the human body. Francis had discovered in 1940 that there was more than one kind of flu virus. That’s why epidemiologists release a different flu vaccine every year, based on their predictions of which strains will be dominant. It’s estimated that Francis’s flu vaccine has directly saved more than a million lives.

While he was teaching at the University of Michigan, Francis established a virology lab to study viruses. One of his first students in the lab was Jonas Salk. Francis taught his student how to develop vaccines, and Salk eventually went on to develop a vaccine against polio. Francis designed the massive nationwide field trial that proved the effectiveness and safety of Salk’s vaccine.

Francis also founded the University of Michigan’s Department of Epidemiology, to study how diseases are spread through populations and develop ways of controlling outbreaks. Francis said: “Epidemiology must constantly seek imaginative and ingenious teachers and scholars to create a new genre of medical ecologists who, with both the fine sensitivity of the scientific artist and the broad perception of the community sculptor, can interpret the interplay of forces which result in disease.”

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The Power of Tradition: The Lesson of Longevity

One of the immediate consequences of mergers of sound credit unions is the loss of their legacy and traditions created by generations of member service.

Often the continuing credit union tries to ameliorate  this wasting  by temporarily retaining the old name while consolidating operations and leadership under outside direction.  And shortly thereafter comes the new brand.

Terms such as “goodwill” acknowledge the real value that the relationships and roles of long-serving firms bring their communities in addition to  their economic contributions.

Family vs Public Business Success

A July 11, 2025 article in Bloomberg Opinion by Adrian Wooldridge suggests that the recognition and respect for a firm’s history may be a critical factors in the long term survival of family business versus that of most public companies.

Below are a few excerpts from his article Europe’s Best Family Firms Have a Secret Weapon Money Can’t Buy.  

Tradition can’t be bought. It’s fashionable in business circles to pass over Europe with a sigh. But the best European family companies have survived everything history can throw at them, and the majority of businesses that have survived for 200-plus years are European,

Part of the answer lies in longevity: The best European family companies have survived plagues, famines, world wars, recessions, revolutions — and continue to thrive. The Henokiens Association, an international club of 57 family businesses that have survived for at least 200 years, includes only ten non-European members, all Japanese. . .

The typical life expectancy of any company, family or non-family, is only a couple of decades, and is falling. What explains the longevity of the best European family businesses? . . .

Tradition. Tradition is a unique resource which newer firms cannot match regardless of how much money they have: Thousands of companies produce wine, for example, but only the Frescobaldis in Tuscany can boast that their ancestor, Dino, rescued the first seven Cantos of Dante’s Divine Comedy from destruction.

Tradition provides impossible to quantify corporate benefits: pride in collective achievements; the self-confidence to make difficult decisions; and, perhaps most important of all, a sense of perspective–family companies are much better than public companies at resisting the pressure of quarterly results for long-term results.

For their part, big public companies often suffer from a “crisis of banality”: in a world that is hungry for meaning, all too many of them adopt identical virtue-signaling language or forgettable names or logos. . .

They should study the art of storytelling practiced by the likes of Berry Bros. & Rudd founded in 1698 selling coffee.  Even as some American tourists like to lament Europe’s supposed decline into a collection of monuments without any economic prospects, some of those monuments contain clever and innovative companies that will continue to thrive even after the giants of Silicon Valley have gone the way of Shelley’s Ozymandias.

The poem’s final stanza:

And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
My question: Is the idea that credit unions are like family more powerful than we might at first realize?
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Not Your Typical Strategic Planning Question

Lots of talk about strategy is happening now.  For 2026 and beyond.

This public dialogue asks a different question from those posed in traditional planning retreats.

How would you answer?  It could make a difference in your firm’s priorities.

 

Question from a CEO:  Have we become so changed that our shared purpose and collective action is no longer a movement, but instead an industry like so many other market driven and profit making organizations? Even our credit union leaders and advocates refer to us as an industry in the daily rags that I read each morning. What are we now? Are we no longer a movement, whose mission is socially driven?

Response: Ancin Cooley, Principal, Synergy Credit Union Consulting,Inc

To answer your heartfelt question directly:

We are no longer a movement.

What we now have is something far more compromised. What remains today is a quasi-cooperative system—held together by legacy language (”We stand for hashtag#mainstreet values”), but driven mainly by pure capitalists in cooperative costumes.

If you pay close attention, you’ll notice something strange: No one publicly defends these credit union mergers.

Not on video. Not on LinkedIn. Not at conferences.

Why? Because there’s an inherent contradiction between what’s happening and what a cooperative is.

But here’s the truth: this trajectory could shift swiftly if just 20 to 30 credit union CEOs joined their league boards and made their positions known.

Yes, it might cost some relationships. But if someone can’t respect your position, you were never friends in the first place. Your friendship was predicated on compliance. So what if you don’t get invited to DC to take your fourth picture with your local congressman?

If you’re doing right by your members, community, and credit union, those congresspeople will come to your office, not the other way around.

Impact draws attention. Service builds power.

 

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Summer Thoughts and Sights

Growing up our family lived in small towns surrounded by farms.  In suumer the lightning bugs would glow  as tiny yellow flying dots in the warm nights after dark.  They flew their courses at our level of play.

We would take the quart glass Bell jars used for canning vegetables, punch air holes in the metal covers and put in some cut grass. Then we would catch the yellow flickering, flying tiny creatures with our hands. Put them in the jar. We’d take the jars of small nightlights to our bedroom to watch them blink on and off  till sleep.

Frost had a different image in mind.

Fireflies in the Garden

by Robert Frost

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,

And here on earth come emulating flies,

That though they never equal stars in size,

(And they were never really stars at heart)

Achieve at times a very star-like start.

Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.

Summer is vacation time.  School is out.  We look forward to swimming pools opening, time off for holidays and occasionally the ultimate challenge, what are we going to do today?

For Mary Oliver, summer’s hiatus from fixed schedules is a time to ask, what is it you plan to do with  life?

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean –

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down –

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life? 

Summer Colors

My oldest azalea planted over 40 years ago is the last to bloom in mid-June protected by the shade of a tall maple and redbud trees.   Yes, those are two topiary steeds guarding our front door in the background.

Best year yet for gladiolas.  The bulbs take several seasons to reach their full glory at a height of over 6 feet.

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A Past and Present Story to Make Every CU Member Proud

A three year old credit union with just 8,000 members received the movement’s highest honor for “Outstanding Achievement” in the 2003 Herb Wegner annual award dinner.

Chartered in February of 2000, in three years the credit union had only $11.0 million in assets. But it was powered by passion, vision and a vital mission.

This excerpt from the Night of Stars video is Chairman John Herrera’s acceptance speech.

In just eleven minutes it is a timeless and powerful message for the difference credit unions make for members, communities and the country.

Several moments to note:

  • The size of the credit union’s “family”on stage with him;
  • His gratitude to the many credit union supporters in North Carolina who helped the startup–at one point he asks those in the audience to stand.
  • Two iconic credit union leaders on stage with his board and staff, Martin Eakes and Jim Blaine (around minute 5:00) who played special roles in this new charter’s progress.
  • His comments on the needs of the country’s 28 million new immigrants: “there are no illegal humans.” (around minute 9:00).  A message for today.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9UfOhtljws)

This talk is as relevant now as it was in 2003. It shows the collaborative capability of credit unions to respond to critical human needs.  Service was an essential factor–the staff speaks five languages and although when hours are from 7:00am to 7:00 pm on Mondays and Fridays, the credit union doesn’t close till everyone in line is served.

Latino Community’s Example Today

For the next two decades, Latino Community has been one of the fastest growing credit unions in America.

At March 2025, Latino reported 133,000 members served by 320 employees in 15 branches.   It has a loan to share ratio of 114% with 75% of the portfolio in real estate loans.  Its net worth ratio is 22% augmented by $99 million of subordinated debt.  Without the debt, the equity ratio would be 13.5%.

New credit unions are rare.  Soul Community FCU, chartered by NCUA in December 2024, was closed six months later by the agency.

The capacity to begin new credit unions still exists.  The needs of individuals and communities is as great or maybe even greater in terms of the nation’s wealth inequality.

What is lacking is the spirit at many levels in the coop system to join with and support the passions of the approximately 100 new charter applicants and/or inquiries resting at NCUA.

One of the persons who assisted the Latino start up was Jim Blaine, then CEO at SECU.  He describes the reason this effort succeeded as follows:

In 2000, SECU joined with a host of community activists, churches (the local Catholic Bishop), state/federal regulators (especially NCUA’s RD Alonzo Swann), and numerous other credit unions to help charter Latino Community Credit Union. It was a remarkable cooperative effort. Our unserved and financially at-risk Latino neighbors were the challenge, community was the answer. 

Each group brought a unique expertise but shared the same purpose. SECU provided the operational systems and “back office” support which gave the staff time to learn and grow – time to focus on their community – without the threat of failure.

SECU also sought low-cost deposits for lending from credit unions nationwide; the credit union community responded with over $10 million. Folks often miss what’s most important about LCCU.  Latino yes, but  a credit union community most! 

Would it be so today!  Go back and listen to the last two minutes again for a message that should  be close to everyone’s heart now.