New Cultures, Member Relationships, Leadership Styles

This week, CreditUnions.com profiles a new culture in Arizona, small dollar loans in New Mexico, and data insights nationwide.

This week, CreditUnions.com profiles a new culture in Arizona, small dollar loans in New Mexico, and data insights nationwide.

By 2011, Vantage West Federal Credit Union was a few years removed from crossing the $1 billion barrier in terms of its assets but on the precipice of even greater growth.

It was this potential for growth that spurred conversations, specifically relating to the institution’s internal culture. Not that there was anything necessarily broken. Rather, says Sandra Lueders, Vantage West’s vice president of human resources, things were siloed.

So if you talked to the lending department they had their perspective, if you talked to HR they had their perspective, she says. Departments were fairly insular as opposed to having an overall company perspective.

To grow, Lueders felt that all staff needed to be on the same page. All employees needed to be able to articulate the institution’s future goals rather than focusing on the goals of specific departments. She wanted to build a culture that led employees to an all-encompassing view of the institution. She even had a name for it: Culture of Accountability.

Read more about how the credit union built this new culture to foster growth in How To Create A Culture Of Accountability by Callahan associate editor Erik Payne.

Member relationships at credit unions continued to grow in the first quarter of 2016. See the full story in target=”_blank”>Member Relationships By The Numbers.

New Mexico’s Nusenda Credit Union is going global in its efforts to offer micro-loans to entrepreneurs and small-business people across the Land of Enchantment.

We have capital we can lend, but lending parameters are such that we can’t take on the risk associated with small-dollar loans, says Robin Brul , the credit union’s senior vice president of community relations and special assistant to the president.

That’s why the credit union developed a program in which four community partners underwrite an array of small loans from borrowers such as farmers, film workers, and construction contractors.

See how the New Mexico credit union puts community capital and cooperative principles to work in Why Nusenda Partners With Local Organizations To Vey Small-Dollar Loans by Callahan senior writer Marc Rapport.

Credit unions continued to grow members and loans to record highs in the second quarter and appear to be well-positioned to handle interest rate risk.

The nation’s credit unions posted 10.6% year-over-year loan growth in the second quarter, along with 7.5% share growth, and 7.6% asset growth, all according to data collected by Callahan Associates.

In 3 Takeaways From Second Quarter Data learn more about the credit union industry’s most recent fiancial performance.

Hardly a day goes by that Rod Flowers, vice president of Human Resources at SECU of Maryland ($3.1B, Linthicum, MD) doesn’t draw on a lesson from his past. The son of a Philadelphia police officer, he grew up in the church, became his family’s first college graduate, and lives by this piece of advice: Part of the rent we pay on this earth is the service we provide to others.

He shares insights on managing HR through organization change, branch modernization, and shifts in brand and cultlure in od Flowers On Leadership.

Happy Reading!

August 29, 2016

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