10 years, 10 thoughts
by. Anthony Demangone
A little more than 10 years ago, I walked through NAFCU’s front door for the first time. Such milestones give one reason to reflect. Here are 10 thoughts from my first 10 years.
10 years ago….
- There is no better model than ours. With credit unions, all the incentives tip in favor of consumers. A board of the membership. Limited ability to charge interest. Democratic elections. No conflict between the owners and the members. We are the consumer’s best friend in the financial services marketplace.
- Death by 1,000 cuts. Regulatory asphyxiation is a real thing. Yes, rules are necessary. But there must be a true cost/benefit analysis done. Case in point? OFAC. Ask your compliance officer how many true OFAC hits have affected your credit union in the past five years? Yet you spend time and money looking for them each and every day.
- Flux is constant. There were 9,014 credit unions in December 2004. Today there are 6,429. That’s a drop of roughly 30%. But we serve more people today, and we have a larger market share. Is that good or bad? Or is it just the natural phenomenon of change And speaking of change, Facebook was founded in 2004. YouTube in 2005. Twitter? 2006.