3 things I’m thankful for

by. Henry Meier

Many people, including my wife, accuse me of being a glass half-empty kind of guy.  In fact, I’m just a realist.  For instance, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, although Madison Avenue would like us to believe that the holiday is actually Black Friday eve, I think dedicating one day a year to think about how lucky we are is one of the master strokes of human ingenuity.  So, I’ve reviewed my blogs from the past year and here are some of the things the credit union industry should be thankful for. . .

1.  NCUA’s announcement that there will be no special assessment in 2014 to pay back the Treasury for the cost of cleaning up the corporates.  As an industry we can hold our heads high.  Had banks followed our lead, there would have been no mortgage meltdown.  But when it came time to repay the government for its economic consequences, we paid it back in full without any subsidies from the U.S. government, which is more than many community and commercial banks can say.

2.  We work for an industry that people love.  Trust me, as someone who has spent a good chunk of his adult life in and around the state legislature, this is not something to take for granted.  Our greatest strength as an industry remains the credit union’s brand.  For tens of millions of Americans, credit unions stand for a fair deal.

The only credit unions I get angry at are the ones that  don’t understand that living up to this ethos is one of the keys to the industry’s survival.

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