SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–The unique and vital “network effect” among credit unions is what is really the differentiator, according to four people here who offered examples of how that differentiation is—and must—play out.
Prior to a panel offering their insights to Filene’s Big. Bright. Minds. meeting here, Filene CEO Mark Meyer outlined how he views that network effect, which he described as the opportunity among credit unions to use their cooperative nature to leverage the “crowd’s wisdom.”
“If Ed Filene were here he would say, ‘Well done. You have built a credit union system that supports credit unions and gives you scale that is unparalleled to other organizations,” said Meyer.
Meyer was moderating a panel of other CUSO and organization leaders and he asked each of them for their input on what the network effect means to them.
Here’s a look at some of what they had to say:
‘This is Really Our Life Blood’
Gigi Hyland, executive director, National CU Foundation (who offered her comments virtually):
If you're in the credit union system you know the cooperative principles, and you know number six is ‘Cooperation among cooperatives.’ This is really our life blood. It's what we do. Thinking about how we can bring together great ideas and make them better and bring scale to them is what we do as a credit union system.
It's really at the heart of what we do and what we will be doing in 2024…specifically around data: How do we show with credit unions’ own data what you're doing to improve members’ financial lives? What does that look like? How are we showing through data that you're actually making a difference to improve people's financial lives?
We are leveraging the Quick Start Guide that we created with Filene about a year and a half ago and we're leveraging that to put into the fin-health hub which is going to be launched at the very end of January 2024. That is going to be a place where you can understand and see how do you actually do financial well being for all? That's the question I get all the time: ‘I understand it, but how do I do it?’
Getting Embedded
The Quick Start Guide gives you some help with that and then this hub is also going to help you with how you actually embed it into your credit union and what's the value for you in terms of this network effect that we have with all of our system partners collaborating.
I think you stand to gain a lot of things: number one, this is future-proofing the credit union system. Finding a way to show data that credit unions are truly impacting members’ lives is key from an advocacy standpoint. It's also key from a relevancy standpoint for members.
Second, it extends your dollars. If you’re going to support each of our organizations (the dollars) are tripled, quadrupled. We bring our superpowers together for the benefit of credit unions.
Working to Avoid Duplication
Jeff, Klein, CEO, Members Development Corp.
We want to make sure we are not spending our (member CUs’) money twice.
“We're working really hard to leverage (Filene’s) research. As we look at moving things forward we try really hard to complement the actions or build off each other 's actions rather than doing the exact same thing when our constituents want us to focus in similar spaces.
That's just one example. Mark (Meyer) and I have had other conversations about ways we can collaborate, even operationally.
‘Scale Really, Really Matters’
Merry Pateuk, SVP, PSCU
PSCU and Co-op will be combining operations. We are doing this to increase the scale. Everybody needs scale in our business. Payments has continued to consolidate. We were founded around scale 40 years ago by six credit union CEOs in the Florida area who recognized when the NCUA gave them the green light to issue credit cards that they would do better together as a group to find a processor, and PSCU was born.
Really, nothing has changed. Scale really, really matters. By combining operations we know we'll get the best of the talent, we'll get the best of the products and services and we will be able to sharpen our focus on innovation.
Both organizations spend a lot of money on, say, cyber security, so we're chasing the same thing.
By combining operations we can combine forces. We are super excited about this, what it means to credit unions.
The ‘Entrepreneurs of Credit Unions’
Ronaldo Hardy, CEO, NACUSO
Inspiring innovation and cultivating collaboration at the core of our business. I love that NACUSO represents the entrepreneurs of the industry and (CUSOs help to) put a business solution in the market that helps them to advance in ways that they could not have done on their own.
I love what that looks like from an industry perspective. We are seeking to cultivate environments where good ideas can emerge and also scale. We want those solutions to go to market and to be successful so that you can do what you need to do for your members.
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