Lending Perspectives: This space available

Are you ready to be a lending thought leader? Maybe writing this column is for you.

While I don’t like to think about it too often, I must face facts: Retirement is in my foreseeable future. It won’t happen in the next year, but it won’t be five years away either. While I’m working on a succession plan here at Ent Credit Union, it would be great to find someone with a passion for lending who’d like to carry my torch for writing about lending.

The Value of Writing a Regular Lending Column

I didn’t enter the credit union movement almost 34 years ago with plans to write, yet I was influenced by the former CEO of FAIRWINDS Credit Union, Ed Baranowski. Ed was a big believer that the credit union motto of “people helping people” extended to credit unions helping each other. He was on the CUNA board for several years and also did consulting, speaking and teaching for the credit union movement.

It was Ed’s inability to take on a particular speaking and training engagement that led him to recommend me to do a three-day session on collections for the New York Credit Union Association in 1991. That was the start of my interest in helping my peers in the credit union world that continues today. Over the years, I have authored well over 100 articles (some of which are in this collection) and several whitepapers that have been published by various credit union organizations. For over a decade, my favorite topics were risk-based pricing, portfolio analysis and other technical, difficult-to-tackle topics. I now find myself leaning towards leadership issues in lending.

 

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