Geographically, I’m the lucky one.
George, swung through the upper midwest in February. I got to hit Vancouver, Seattle and Portland in March. That’s one continental divide and two time zones away from Madison’s deep winter. Lewis and Clark, eat your hearts out.
We took to the road to visit 10 Filene credit unions, many of them Research Council members, and take the pulse of credit unions in the Pacific Northwest. The profiles of particular credit unions remain under wraps, but some common themes emerged:- Social Sustainability. Each of these northwest credit unions are planting flags right in the middle of a triangle that marks “local”, “environmentally friendly”, and “socially responsible” at its three corners. For some that’s as simple as touting how local deposits are loaned to local borrowers. For others, it means considering discounts on loans for environmentally friendly cars—not just with a standard 25 basis point markdown, but as an actual deployment of retained earnings as an investment in the community. In each of these cities, consumers care about a company’s track record, and reward (PDF) the ones that contribute.
- Taxes. Credit unions north of the border pay taxes on their profits; south of the border they do not. Yet leaders on both sides of the border are making their businesses run with the cooperative ethos in place. BC credit unions see taxes as a cost like any other, and mandatory costs force them to ferret out savings. BC credit unions are not immune to corporate creep (neither are American credit unions), but corporatism done right brings efficiency, and efficiency benefits members.
- Consolidation. Mark joined me in Seattle and we heard about the First Tech / Addison Avenue merger right before we passed the border into Oregon. Each of our credit union friends in Canada was amazed that the median size of an American credit union is $16 million. The consensus among those we interviewed, north and south of the border, is that First Tech / Addison Avenue is just the front end of a consolidation streak.
- Optimism. Is the system roiled? Yes. Is capital down? Yes. But with few exceptions, the Northwest credit unions are seeing membership growth. Granted, we spoke mainly with larger credit unions, but the principles behind their growth – local focus, efficiency in the interest of member service, and anger at irresponsible players – are available to every credit union.
Oh yeah, and even our Canadian friends are saying thrift is the new black, but one famous American is still trying to get his mind around it:
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