LAS VEGAS-An effort to launch more de novo credit unions, including a CU to serve historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), continues to move forward.
A new website has just launched as part of the broader effort to see more start-up credit unions take root. The effort, the CU De Novo Collective, is being championed by Denise Wymore,
marketing manager with QCash Financial, which is a wholly owned unit of Washington State Employees Credit Union. There are also a number of other people involved.
During the Underground Rock Festival: Xtreme Thought Leadership event in Las Vegas—which was hosted by Mitchell Stankovic Associates and broadcast live on YouTube—Wymore said her concerns around the difficulties in starting new credit unions were sparked by comments she heard made by Gary Perez, president and CEO of USC Credit Union in Los Angeles, when he described some of the challenges.
“The credit union movement cannot go away,” said Wymore, noting she had a discussion with NCUA in which the agency said there are many well-intentioned people looking to charter credit unions, many of whom even have good business plans, but they lack expertise and even if they make it through the agency/start-up “gauntlet,” they often don’t have the capital necessary, which is typically $1 million or more.
All of that led Wymore to joke she had created a “de novo support group” that has been meeting every other week and which has now launched the website as a means of sharing resources, including documents, policies, procedures, financial mentors and even free services for the first few years of a start-up.
A CU For HBCUs
When it comes to de novos, USC CU’s Perez remains firmly behind an idea he has advocated for several years, which is starting a credit union to serve the country’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
“We have an opportunity, a privilege I dare say, to collectively come together to address 400 years of racial injustice,” said Perez, also appearing before the Underground Rock Festival, who wants the proposed CU to serve HBCUs currently lacking a credit union as well as be a resource for CUs already serving HBCUs. “We can come together to create something that would be so incredibly powerful. There are 109 HBCUs in this country and there are only nine credit unions that are chartered to exclusively serve those individual campuses.”
Perez said he envisions a CU that would “almost instantly” qualify for a low-income designation and that would be a minority depository institution (MDI), which would qualify it to acquire $1 million in capital.
“In fact, we want to get $10 million,” said Perez, citing other sources of funding that would be available.
Moreover, such a credit union would be able to “radically buy down” the costs of financial education in communities and should even be able to make scholarships available, he said.
Not About Empires
The effort is not about “empire building,” clarified Perez, noting there are not plans to have the start-up operate as a division of USC Credit Union.
“Through the leadership of the African-American Credit Union Coalition, we can make a difference through a digital-first credit union that would be something,” said Perez. “I believe we will all be very, very proud. Let's do something cooperative. Let's do something together to make an impact on the African-American community in the United States.”