Michael Bartlett

Every credit union wants to be a consumer’s primary financial institution. But Neil Goldman said winning the PFI race requires a reality check, because many consumers do not have great views of credit unions.

The 16-day, post-election “lame duck” legislative session is “critical” for credit unions, according to Bill Cheney.

It wasn’t all that long ago that San Francisco FCU’s planning horizon did not extend beyond one year. The one thing it could see in front of it, however, was that it was losing members.

Pinal County FCU has turned around two negatives familiar to many CUs–lack of quality member feedback and low cross-sales ratios–and made them positives with a signature pad.

Since implementation of what it termed “aggressive” fraud mitigation strategies, $3.3-billion Mountain America Credit Union has reduced hard-dollar fraud losses while more at-risk dollars in fraudulently accessed accounts were protected.

The $470-million Fresno County FCU here has been able to process greater mortgage lending volume while cutting expenses and reducing the burden on its staff, thanks to a new partnership.

When $984-million First Entertainment Credit Union was seeking to generate $5 million in auto loans and to raise its awareness among potential members within the local community, it decided to face the music.

At the recent CUNA OpSS Council (Operations, Sales & Service) Credit Union Journal asked attendees to name the biggest challenge or challenges for their credit unions, from the OpSS perspective.

The best practice employed during a 2010 merger of $177.4-million Metro 1 CU into $1.6-billion Travis CU, Vacaville, Calif., was “communication, communication, communication.”

Some mortgage applicants continue to be surprised they need to prove they actually have a job and do not carry too much debt.

Awareness that they make mortgage loans has long been an issue for credit unions. Not so for the $5.7-billion San Diego County CU.

With low rates largely a commodity but with fees that are below market, the $2-billion Redwood CU has found another factor is helping drive mortgage volume: being locally owned.

As the San Francisco Bay Area housing market continues its recovery, $3.8-billion Patelco Credit Union expects to set a record for mortgages this year and top it in 2013.

This seaside city has long been the bell cow for California real estate market, which may be good news.

The Golden 1 Credit Union is in the middle of one of the biggest refi booms in its history.

With the housing market staging a “minor recovery” in the Silver State’s capital city, one credit union lender here is finally seeing an equal number of purchase mortgages and refinances.

Don’t try telling Jennifer Denoo, chief operations officer for Great Basin Credit Union, it is difficult or impossible for consumers to get a mortgage due to tighter underwriting standards in a post-crisis market.

Although this market has a well-earned reputation as a depressed real estate market crushed by a glut of unsold housing, Wayne Tew, president and CEO of Clark County CU believes already strong mortgage volume would be even better if there were more homes to sell.

Joe Kelly, CEO of $36-million S.T.A.R. Community CU, said membership growth is finally slowing down after substantial growth from October 2011 through May of this year.

Spokane Teachers Credit Union has seen its membership hit 110,000 in recent weeks after starting 2012 with 100,000.