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Credit Union Times

FEBRUARY 22, 2017 | VOL. 28 | NO. 5 | CUTIMES.COM

Cybersecurity Compliance

It’s more important now than ever. Y12

The CU Capital Insider

Read the CU Times Washington reporter’s debut column. Y6

FOCUSREPORT:

NONINTEREST INCOME

Noninterest income is critical to the typical credit union’s bottom line. In this Focus Report, take a deep dive into noninterest income trends over the past decade, plus, learn how one credit union boosted its income through a mobile deposit program overhaul. Y8

LENDING

Refinance Retreat

Credit unions did significantly better than most lenders in 2016 as the refinance boom continued and the housing market remained strong.

They had expected refinances to fall as mortgage rates rose. Neither happened.

This year? Among eight credit unions serving members from Long Island to Long Beach, most are — once again — anticipating mortgage interest rates will rise and refinances will drop.

The net effect will depend on purchase loans. Many expect rising rates will encourage those who have been sitting on the fence to move up to a larger house or a more desired neighborhood. Credit union experts are split on whether purchase loans will make up for losing ground on refinancing efforts in 2017.

Real estate is important among the eight surveyed credit unions: • BECU based near Seattle;

• Bethpage Federal Credit Union on Long Island, N. Y.;

• Digital Federal Credit Union based in the Boston area;

• Ideal Credit Union based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area;

• Patelco Credit Union based in the San Francisco Bay Area;

• SAFE Federal Credit Union based in central South Carolina;

• Wescom Credit Union based
in southern California; and
• Wright-Patt Credit Union
based in Dayton, Ohio.

The eight credit unions interviewed for this story ac- Y16 Must Reads

ellers make the branch world go around, but they can be hard to keep. Turnover rates can be around 20% to 30%, according to Meredith Deen, who is director of products and services for scheduling-software company FMSI. The churn isn’t just a hassle for hiring managers, it’s expensive: For example, it costs $2,204

every time a part-time teller quits, according to one FMSI study.

But some credit unions are lucky enough to have tellers who stick around — sometimes even for decades — saving money, time and member relationships. Two long-time tellers and a human resources pro share five things credit unions can do to keep good tellers.

1. Be up-front and reasonable
about sales expectations.

Antonita “Mano” Vaz has been a
teller for nearly 14
years at Atlanta-
based CDC Fed-
eral Credit Union,
which has $292
million in assets
and about 18,000
members. An im-
migrant from Sri
Lanka, she’d been in the United
States for only five years when she
joined the credit union in 2003.
She’s seen a lot of tellers come
and go, and said many of
TECHNOLOGY

5 Things to Keep Teller Turnover Down

TINA OREM torem@cutimes.com

Y17

Mano

Trump, Immigration and CUs PETER STROZNIAK pstrozniak@cutimes.com

ose Garcia and his wife moved from Mexico to Iowa where they lived as undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Garcia — not his real name to protect his privacy — received an individual taxpayer identification number, which allowed him to open a checking account at the $580 million Community 1st Credit Union. A few years later, Garcia secured a mortgage to buy a home, and he is living his small slice of the American dream, according to a white paper released in January by Coopera, a Des Moines, Iowa-based firm that helps credit unions reach out to and serve Hispanics.

Though it’s legal for financial institutions to provide loans for undocumented immigrants, the immigration policies of President Donald J. Trump could change Garcia’s American dream — and many more like him — into an American nightmare. In addition to losing members, credit unions will also suffer losses when loans go into default if Trump’s aggressive and broad deportation plans are implemented.