America's Credit Unions

Credit unions need a sustainable approach to growing deposits. One component of that is the use of high-yield accounts, says Alisha Crafton, chief growth officer at Kasasa.

In this episode, sponsored by Kasasa, Crafton examines the company’s use of data and analytics, industry trends, the concept of “phantom growth,” deposit growth strategies, and more.

Housing finance and affordable housing take center stage on this week’s episode, sponsored by the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB).

Ryan Donovan, president/CEO at the council, updates listeners on a recent report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and discusses how FHLBs support mortgage financing, the council’s Affordable Housing Program, success stories from this program, and more.

Join Michael Bell from Honigman LLP for an exciting discussion about growth planning. Mr. Bell provides a glimpse of his practice helping credit unions navigate the world of mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Bell shares his expertise regarding strategic planning and growth, key considerations for the merger process, and perspectives on field of membership and chartering. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Recognize common misconceptions and pitfalls in strategic planning around growth; 
• Understand key considerations for credit unions merging with another credit union or purchasing bank assets; 
• Learn about the optimal charter for a merger and common issues related to charger changes; and 
• Hear about potential improvements that would make the chartering and merger process easier. 

Bio: Michael Bell 

Mr. Bell serves as Chair of the Financial Institutions Practice Group at Honigman. He represents financial institutions throughout the United States and has completed over 40 M&A transactions in the past five years. In 2011, he pioneered a new option for credit unions to achieve rapid growth with the first purchase of a whole bank by a credit union. For the past decade, he has completed the majority of credit union purchases of banks and has become the nationwide leader and go-to legal adviser in this space. Mr. Bell has also helped credit unions acquire other businesses, including insurance and investment companies, trust companies, real estate brokerages, mortgage originators and specialized lenders. He additionally advises financial institutions on all regulatory matters at the state and federal level. Mr. Bell has extensive experience counseling individual entrepreneurs through publicly traded companies on strategies such as non-organic growth and strategic planning. 

Succession planning is about strategic oversight and ensuring your organization is relevant and future-focused.

In this episode of the podcast, Susan Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Stankovic and Associates, talks about the importance of having an organization-wide succession plan, why taking a forward-focused approach is critical, how succession planning fits into the credit union’s strategic plan, and more.

Credit unions have a renewed focus on fostering member’s financial health and, increasingly, those efforts are digital and mobile-first, says Nicole Harper, director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry.

In this episode of the podcast, sponsored by Jack Henry, Harper examines credit unions’ role in fostering financial health, financial wellness trends, available mobile-first resources, challenges to promoting financial wellness, success stories, and more.

Brian Fassett, Advantis Credit Union’s director of learning and development joins today’s episode of the America’s Credit Union podcast to share how the $2 billion asset credit union in Portland, Ore., goes about finding and developing prospective leaders within the organization.

Jon Sexton, senior vice president of Culture and Leadership Development at Vibrant Credit Union, will follow with a deep look at identifying potential leaders and training them through the organization.

Join this panel discussion with Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel at Plaid, and Ben Maxim, Chief Digital Strategy and Information Officer at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, highlighting initial takeaways from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rulemaking to establish open banking and implement section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Fuchs and Maxim cover the benefits and challenges of building APIs to share consumer financial data and how your credit union should be evaluating this transition to open banking as the CFPB works to finalize its rule. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Understand the objective of the CFPB’s Section 1033 open banking rulemaking; 
• Hear a credit union’s perspective regarding their journey to build an API; and 
• Delve into some unresolved issues from the CFPB’s proposed rule. 

Credit unions deliver billions of dollars in financial benefits to both members and nonmembers—and now we can prove it.

The Credit Union Impact Dashboard from America’s Credit Unions provides an easy, interactive way to demonstrate how credit unions outperform their peers. It updates in real time to tell the credit union story, measure their transformative power, and showcase how they outperform other financial institutions.

In this episode, Schenk and America’s Credit Unions Senior Economist Ligia Vado explain the dashboard and what it can do, the importance of quantifying the credit union difference, and more.

Find the first crop of stories from America’s Credit Unions’ 2024 Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) on last week’s podcast, where credit union leaders discussed small credit unions, member service, fintech, advocacy, and more.

We’re back at it this week with America’s Credit Unions’ Samira Salem, Northwest Community Credit Union’s Jose Garcia, Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions’ Mike Reuter, Defense Credit Union Council’s Tony Hernandez, and Olympic gold medalist Shaun White.

Listen in as America’s Credit Unions Deputy Editor Bill Merrick and Associate Editor Brock Fritz talk with these credit union advocates about diversity, equity, and inclusion; advocacy, servicemember credit unions, and more.

Highlights from the 2024 Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC)

Conversations with some of the more than 6,000 credit union leaders who attended the year's premier advocacy event.