Summary
With consumer savings rising and bank rivals suffering from shaky commercial real estate loans and bad publicity, credit unions supposedly have a golden opportunity to grow and capture market share. The challenge is finding the gold in that opportunity. To grow or not to grow can be the $64,000 question for credit unions today, observes CUES member Bill Vogeney, SVP/chief lending officer at $2.8 billion Ent in Colorado Springs, CO. Normally CUs try to grow, but these are not normal times, even for relatively healthy, fast-growing CUs like Ent. Mortgages are booming, thanks to low rates and government incentives. But it's risky to hold too many 5% fixed-rate, 30-year mortgages in a CU's portfolio, as many CU executives remember from the S&L collapse in the 1980s. The best growth opportunity for Camino FCU may not show up on its balance sheet. That would be reputation growth.
See the full content of this document
Extract
Make Hay When the Sun Shines
With consumer savings rising and bank rivals suffering from shaky commercial real estate loans and bad publicity, credit unions supposedly have a golden opportunity to grow and capture market share. The challenge is finding the gold in that opportunity. When growth dilutes capital and compresses margins, it becomes something CU executives want to control and sometimes even discourage.
To grow or not to grow can be the $64,000 question for credit unions today, observes CUES member Bill Vogeney, SVP/chief lending officer at $2.8 billion Ent (www.ent. com) in Colorado Springs, Colo. Normally CUs try to grow, but these are not normal times, even for relatively healthy, fastgrowing CUs like Ent."I can't say our business strategy is...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
