Good Examples

by Ron Daly

Credit Unions were created to promote thrift, offer quality services to people of moderate income and create a sense of community through fair lending and strong member relationships. This set of standards, long a point of pride for credit unions, have also managed to make the industry profitable. The focus of individual credit unions is to serve their member communities, whether those communities are large or small. 

The lesson? You can be profitable without being too large or too greedy. 

Two people who discovered this? Ryan Bubb and Alex Kaufman, doctoral candidates from Harvard who shared with the New York Times their findings on credit cards from CUs (click here to read). To sum up: credit union credit cards manage to be profitable while already adhering to most of the rules laid down by the new CARD Act. Those folks who are concerned that credit cards will be unable to survive with the new requirements aren't paying attention to CU's, the authors say, who manage to do well without being too harsh on consumers. 

Where else can CUs make an impact by showing themselves a "good example"? How will you use this info to drive up business?