Respecting Cooperative Owners: The One Thing Essential
As the way in which credit unions interact with members has changed, so to have our attitudes regarding their role: owners or customers? Chip Filson discusses why it is so important to maintain members’ relationship with the credit union as owners.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Creating a team and setting them to work is not enough to ensure its success, argues Julie Gessner. Great teams are developed by building a culture of trust and collaboration that is guided by a strong mission statement for the credit union.
A College Student’s First Credit Card
Chip Filson shares the story of Marit Hoyem and her experience attempting to get her first credit card as a young college student. Marit passes on what she went through and offers advice to credit unions seeking to make a difference in the lives of their members.
As Credit Card Debt Hits New High, PALs Reassert Their Value for Credit Union Members
QCash’s Seth Brickman discusses how NCUA’s Payday Alternative Loan program can be a boon to members who might otherwise rely on more predatory lending options or the credit cards in their wallets.
Cooperatives, Credit Cards, and Wealth Redistribution
A study from the Federal Reserve shows how credit card rewards programs represent a transfer of wealth from the naïve to the informed, the poor to the wealthy, relates Chip Filson.
Defining the Roadmap Forward to Implementing Digital Assets
As member interest in cryptocurrencies rises, some credit unions are debating whether it’s time to meet the challenge while others balk at the mere idea. Cryptofi discusses the initial steps toward implementing crypto and how credit unions can work with third parties to bring members the technology they are asking for.
Credit Union’s Opportunity to Reconnect with their Most “Essential” Members
Now that massive layoffs are beginning to hit white-collar workers, Chip Filson urges credit unions to offer their support, while never forgetting the essential members that got them to where they are today.
Strategies to Avoid Mergers: Adopting a Broker Model
Credit union consolidation and mergers pose a threat to the industry’s many CUSOs and vendors, say Liz Winninger and Victor Pantea. Assisting credit unions in adopting a broker-like model, they argue, can help credit unions increase their product and service offerings and potentially avoid mergers altogether.
Re-Imagining Federal Credit Unions’ Fields of Membership
Chip Filson shares some history on how Ed Callahan helped shape the credit union industry by opening up new possibilities in credit union field of membership, seeking to repurpose it as a building block, not a regulatory hurdle.
Advocating For Choice: Private Insurance
Per the Michigan Credit Union Act, all state-charted credit unions are required to use National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) as their deposit insurance provider. Julie Gessner argues this lack of choice only hurts members in the end and encourages legislative change.
