GLASGOW, Scotland–Speaking to her first in-person World Credit Union Conference since being named president and CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions, Alissa McCarter LaBorde shared her own “rethinking” of what credit unions are, and then made two “asks” of the global credit union community.Alissa McCarter LaBorde
McCarter Laborde said it is the extraordinary events of the past few years, including a pandemic, climate change, food security and supply chain issues that led her back to the drawing board.
“I am one of those people who has been doing a lot of the rethinking, to the point I made a very big career change,” said McCarter Laborde, who joined WOCCU in mid-2021 after having served as CEO of Vitas Group, a for-profit holding company she established under Global Communities, an international development and humanitarian aid organization that operates in 27 countries. “I have been at World Council for less than a year. One of the reasons I made the move is I asked myself how do I make a bigger impact?”
She said she found an answer in the “amazing footprint” of credit unions around the world.
Rather than offer a “State of the Movement” address, McCarter Laborde said she wanted to share what she has perceived as an “outsider” regarding three strengths of credit unions.
Quoting from the book “StrengthsFinder” by Tom Rath, McCarter Laborde said, “If we really want to maximize our potential, we have to double-down on our strengths.”
She believes those three strengths include:
Strength in Numbers
“Part of the reason I joined WOCCU is the 86,000 credit unions, saccos and cooperatives representing 375-million members” around the world, she said. “Think about that for a moment. That is nearly 400-million touchpoints. How might we increase that 400 million to a billion? If you just had a member invite another person to become a member, overnight you are doubling your reach. So how might we double-down on that strength and truly scale?”
Strength in Diversity
McCarter Laborde noted credit unions operate on six continents and include young people, women, immigrants and diverse minorities.
“We have people from all walks of life who can and should be members of credit unions,” McCarter Laborde observed. “We trend older and male. But we are seeing more diversity come into our movement in many ways because we are trying to be more intentional about it. If you dig into that demographic data, you might be surprised. Latin America leads the world with 48% of members being women. Europe leads the world in percentage of women who are on their boards. We know the business case for diversity; businesses perform better when they have diversity on their boards. So, we know the opportunity.”
Strength in Disruption
McCarter Laborde said the word “disruption” most often is associated with technology and digital disruption and related threats. But she thinks of it differently.
“What I have observed in the last several months is a massive activation of the credit union network,” she said. “I also have observed that even in this financial services industry, which is known for a legacy mindset, I have seen the global credit union shared services model, which we have in several of our countries, as a means to grow by co-investing in solutions. I have also observed that many of us were really worried about liquidity, and yet what we saw was more members putting their savings into their credit unions.
“That kind of trust is hard to come by, and that is one of our strengths,” she continued. “And finally, I have observed a lot of pioneers and demonstration models on helping members to be resilient. They are ahead of regulations on ESG and sustainable finance. So, how do we as a movement understand and amplify some of those pioneering credit unions that are already way ahead of the curve?”
Living the Values
McCarter Laborde called on credit unions to live their values, noting she has three children, who, like others, are going to want to “choose who they do business with, who they bank with. We talk about the cooperative principles. It’s how we demonstrate the values that make us different and distinguish us from other financial institutions.”
Two Asks
For her audience of more than 1,000 people drawn from more than 50 countries, and for the broader global credit union community, McCarter Laborde said she had two “asks.”
“Our credit union movement must be more inclusive, greener, and promote more resilience among our members and ourselves,” she said, adding that to that end WOCCU is seeking more and better data from credit unions to inform it and so it can “really lean into the movement.”
The second ask is for “champion” credit unions to step forward and share leadership and models in climate adaptation, technology and digitization and sustainable finance.
A Word for Credit Unions
“The word resilient is perhaps overused but it’s the best word I can think of for how we need to think of our businesses,” McCarter Laborde said. “You have heard ‘Go big or go home.’ I think we’ve got to go big. There are still 1.4 billion people who are unbanked, and I would argue another three-billion who are under-banked and who don’t have good financial choices. And that is why we are here with a business model that truly serves that purpose.”