ANAHEIM, Calif.–More than 80 representatives from 30 credit unions and other organizations attended the 15th Annual Shapiro Summit here, which is designed for credit unions of $200 million in assets and below.
The agenda for the event, which is hosted by the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, focused on issues that included staffing issues, succession planning, due diligence, risks, safety, and more.
The headliner for the Shapiro Summit was NCUA Chairman Todd Harper, who applauded the hard work, due diligence, and innovative decisions those in the audience were facing each year as they continue serving their members. Harper’s remarks addressed mergers, succession planning, interest rate risk, and cybersecurity.
According to the leagues, topics for Shapiro Summit were created by credit unions themselves and further included economic and interest rate insights, interactive collaboration solutions, gaming on real-world issues and scenarios, what's ahead in federal government affairs, innovative lending solutions geared specifically for credit unions, CEO retirement succession strategy at all levels, and more.
Others Addressing Meeting
Attendees also heard from California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues President and CEO Diana Dykstra, who thanked small credit union leaders for taking the time to come engage with their peers, as well as gained insights during a federal legislative update by Leagues’ Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs Jeremy Empol.
During the succession planning session a panel of leaders with more than 100 years of combined experience included Upward CU CEO Linda White, Kaiperm CU CEO Karen Introcaso, and Humanidei + O'Rourke CEO Jill Nowacki.
At the culmination of the event, the Shapiro Advisory Committee honored White and Introcaso on their upcoming retirements, drawing a standing ovation. Introcaso also provided her strategic succession plan to all Shapiro Summit attendees.
Also on Tap
Other sessions included:
- Economic and Geopolitical Impacts in 2022. During this session, Bill Hampel, the former chief economist and policy officer for CUNA and current independent credit union industry economist, polled his audience and found 60% of the audience thought the U.S. economy is currently in a recession, but 40% did not. “We’re in a technical definition of a recession — two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth,” Hampel said. “However, the recession dating committee is the official arbiter of determining a recession. Their definition is a significant, widespread, and persistent decline in economic activity, as well as other factors. Ergo — we are not in a recession, yet. There will likely be a mild recession, however, in the first quarter of 2023.”
- Managing Risk in a Rising Rate Environment. Steve Waddell, senior ALM consultant for Catalyst Corporate FCU, told the meeting, “Interest rate risk is here, and from my perspective, higher rates should be a good thing. A big part of your balance sheet should be capital. If rates are higher, your earnings should be higher because you’re earning on your assets.”
- Better Lending Decisions. Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI, told the Shapiro Summit that no consumer should have to wait long for a car loan approval. “There are so many opportunities you can’t even see, and there is bias in the old processes. Imagine a new way of scoring members without bias, with more accuracy and almost instantly,” de Vere said. “When people needed lending the most, many lenders usually shrink their lending instead of adapting.” He asked the audience if credit unions have ever considered how much in dollars it takes to initiate an auto loan, and how much time it takes. “Machine learning is able to look at data over time, and these are things that your best underwriting person might be intuitive at — however, the artificial intelligence model is more exact, based on raw data, engineered variables, and more.” On average, auto loan approvals increase 21%, personal loans by 31%, and credit cards by 19%.
Other Highlights
The leagues reported that small credit union CEOs and other leaders also enjoyed networking opportunities during a beautiful rooftop welcome reception, as well as bowling at Splitsville Bowling Alley in Downtown Disney.
Sponsors of the event included Catalyst Corporate, CUNA Mutual, American Share Insurance, CU Northwest, Co-op Solutions, the RMJ Foundation, Cotribute and Origence.
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