The lack of optimism in the industry may be related to confusion surrounding the corporate conservatorships as well as the possibility of further write downs. Also, a lack of transparency surrounding the proprietary modeling used in system-wide decision-making could contribute to an increase of "unknowns" and thus, lowered optimism.
If audits were being finished on time and a consistent approach with firm guidance was brought to the corporate situation, I think credit union CEO's would be on firm enough ground to be optimistic, even during a major recession.
@Michael and Christopher - Thanks for chiming in. I am optimistic optimism will be back...it must.
@Mark You crack me up! :)
@Matt I think you're exactly right. But I'm afraid there's more to it. There are plenty of credit union executives that are questioning the sustainability of the movement due to other factors. Possible legislation concerning interchange and courtesy pay, not to mention the effects passed bills (like the Credit Card Act) filled with unintended consequences, have really made optimism take a back seat to fear. The reality is that times are tough...but times have been tough for credit unions before. Pessimism wasn't our key to victory back then, nor is it now.
@Warrior - You nailed it...it seems to me that CUs may be having a crisis of confidence in the entire CU model. After the "CUs rule! Bankers drool!" Kool-Aid runs dry, I'll wager that some CU stalwarts may be wondering if Keith Leggett has been right about us all along.
This movement needs a whole new vocabulary to make the "credit union" label actually mean something again. I think that starts when we stop differentiating on member service and start differentiating on member innovation.
Innovations like the Hyperlocal concept on OpenSourceCU.com are game changers for credit unions. It gives us the chance to redefine the way members think about financial services. It's not a magic bullet, but it could be enough to touch off the revolution of optimism we desperately need.
7 comments:
I agree. It will return, but very slowly.
True.
We tried that before and it didn't work! ;-)
The lack of optimism in the industry may be related to confusion surrounding the corporate conservatorships as well as the possibility of further write downs. Also, a lack of transparency surrounding the proprietary modeling used in system-wide decision-making could contribute to an increase of "unknowns" and thus, lowered optimism.
If audits were being finished on time and a consistent approach with firm guidance was brought to the corporate situation, I think credit union CEO's would be on firm enough ground to be optimistic, even during a major recession.
@Michael and Christopher - Thanks for chiming in. I am optimistic optimism will be back...it must.
@Mark You crack me up! :)
@Matt I think you're exactly right. But I'm afraid there's more to it. There are plenty of credit union executives that are questioning the sustainability of the movement due to other factors. Possible legislation concerning interchange and courtesy pay, not to mention the effects passed bills (like the Credit Card Act) filled with unintended consequences, have really made optimism take a back seat to fear. The reality is that times are tough...but times have been tough for credit unions before. Pessimism wasn't our key to victory back then, nor is it now.
@Warrior - You nailed it...it seems to me that CUs may be having a crisis of confidence in the entire CU model. After the "CUs rule! Bankers drool!" Kool-Aid runs dry, I'll wager that some CU stalwarts may be wondering if Keith Leggett has been right about us all along.
This movement needs a whole new vocabulary to make the "credit union" label actually mean something again. I think that starts when we stop differentiating on member service and start differentiating on member innovation.
Innovations like the Hyperlocal concept on OpenSourceCU.com are game changers for credit unions. It gives us the chance to redefine the way members think about financial services. It's not a magic bullet, but it could be enough to touch off the revolution of optimism we desperately need.
Boom. Right to the point.
Thoughts on how we get it back?
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