The Good and Bad News…

The Good and Bad News… about being a Financial Cooperative (ie. a Credit Union) What’s the difference to Joe if he loses the car to the credit union or the bank? To Joe, there’s probably not a lot. It’s personal, it’s painful, no one seems to understand and he’s angry. Every now and then I have to take my lumps in the public, I assume from someone whose car we had to repossess or who is in the midst of the collection process. Often there are adjectives included to... Read More

How to Serve Humans

It has been interesting to listen to what little feedback there has been from the banks regarding Bank Transfer Day and the estimated 650,000 accounts that switched to credit unions in October alone. I have heard a couple of times that the banker’s response was that they are really not that concerned as, “Those accounts that left were really the less profitable ones, and we didn’t want them anyway.” PLEASE… Let me translate for the rest of you that have NOT... Read More

Group Hug for the Choir

Rather an interesting creation, Bank Transfer Day, this past November 5th. Started by the frustration with her big bank, the owner of a small art gallery in SoCal went viral on her FaceBook and blog, and created a national protest that told people to leave their big banks and go local. Hundreds of thousands moved nationally in October alone. Credit unions were a major beneficiary. We had been seeing stronger checking growth this year but in October it really shifted gears and... Read More