Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders
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.
With more credit unions than
ever serving the Latino population, could this promising growth
market be stifled by Trump’s
controversial immigration
LENDING
Y18