COLUMBIA, Md.–The MD|DC Credit Union Association has launched a Signature DEI Speaker Series.
The series launched on Dec. 8 with a panel of experts who shared insights on the value and impact of diversity, equity and inclusion. More than 70 attendees heard from CUNA’s VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Samira Salem, Coopera CEO Victor Miguel Corro, and UW Credit Union’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Shelia Milton.
“The series offers credit unions the opportunity to deepen their knowledge, increase awareness, and inform individual and organizational actions to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said MD|DC Credit Union Association President/CEO John Bratsakis. “It’s a part of a multidimensional program that will provide meaningful tools and resources for credit unions on their DEI journey.”
A Business Imperative
According to CUNA’s Salem, DEI is a business imperative and a matter of survival for credit unions. “To remain relevant in this changing marketplace, we need to better understand these consumers and that means we need to become more diverse, more equitable, more inclusive at all levels of our organization,” Salem said.
Salem told the meeting CUNA recently conducted an evaluation of Coopera’s Hispanic outreach program and Inclusiv’s Juntos Avanzamos designation.
“We found credit unions that participated in these Hispanic outreach programs grew their membership more than credit unions that did not,” Salem said. “They experience larger increases in loan and asset growth, greater earnings than those that did not participate in those programs. Plus we found that participation in programs didn’t harm portfolio growth.”
Added Coopera CEO Victor Miguel Corro, “Diverse voices and diverse viewpoints are a good thing. There will be better connections with consumers as we see our country is already 40% multicultural so that means that there are segments in the market that actually need to be understood, need to be studied, so we know what products and services they need in the financial space.”
Robust Listening
UW Credit Union’s director of diversity, Milton, said the credit union embarked on its DEI journey with an assessment focused on robust listening and adopting a framework that made it an organizational priority. “We realized DEI was in our heart, but we weren’t explicit about it,” said Milton. “We needed to embed it in our values.”
According to Milton, UWCU developed a vision statement and is in the process of incorporating DEI language into the credit union’s existing core values. “We recognize that DEI is a journey” and that “advancing racial justice is an ongoing commitment without a finish line.”
The MD|DC Credit Union Association said its next installment in the DEI Signature Speaker Series will be held in February.