I recently had the pleasure of hearing former colleague George Hofheimer speak at the Credit Unions at the Crossroads Symposium, Aug. 10-12 at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, which is also home to CUES’ CEO Institute III. George is now the chief research officer at Filene Research Institute http://filene.org/ and led a great discussion about the status of credit unions as an industry and some strategies that might serve them well into the future.
One part of his talk, especially, had me scribbling down notes. He challenged attendees to see the opportunity in regulations. What?! Opportunity in regs? Over-regulation is widely believed to be one of the industry’s biggest problems!
He wasn’t suggesting that credit unions smile and say thank you for every new reg, but he did recommend looking for silver linings in them.
For example, he asked: Why not be the best friend of the Consumer Financial Protection Board? It could provide an opportunity to differentiate credit unions from banks. And some of what the CFPB wants to do is very consistent with what credit unions are about, he said.
As you can imagine, this started a great discussion in the room. One attendee asked when have credit unions as an industry ever come out on top when they sided with the banks?
Another attendee said CUs are better off making their own choices vs. having “choices” dictated at them.
And one more said he would prefer to get rid of the CFPB but if it is the future, credit unions need to work with it.
What do you think? Do you find opportunities, silver linings, in regulations? Or do you think the CU industry is better off left alone to do what it does best?
P.S. Read two more posts from my time at the Credit Unions at the Crossroads Symposium.
Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.
