Credit Unions all across the country continually espouse the idea that they help their members. But I wonder if that is really true. Or do they only help the members they can help. What I mean by that is if you are going to really help all your members there will be some instances that helping them could be in contradiction with a lot of other issues: getting a good exam; keeping the net interest margin up; and a host of priorities.
For example, what if you have a member who is upside down on their mortgage but has faithfully paid the loan, isn't losing their job, and doesn't have any hardship? Can't do a modification for them, you can't refinance it because it has negative equity and therefore you can't help this member get out of this situation. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to help this member take advantage of the low rates and rebuild their equity? I know there are government programs for this but most are geared to lower cost homes. What if this is $850,000 loan? Now what are the options? Can we really say we help our members if we can't help someone in this situation? What about the business owner that has lost money for three years but has maintained the business is breaking even now but needs a large line of credit to build the business and take advantage of a unique opportunity? Are we helping them? Or what about the young borrower who has C credit not because of poor credit but because of a lack of credit? Do we have policies and products to truly help them or do we just pay lip service?
I think credit unions should spend less time talking about what the banks don't offer and more time on making sure we really are the good guys. Want a quick peek to see how you are doing there? Review you C loan approval rate and funding rates. If one or both are substantially lower than A results you are not helping all of your members. Maybe if credit unions lived their supposed brand instead of talking all the time about our brand message we would be better known.
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