BankThink

I entered the credit union industry back in 1995, three years before HR 1151 was passed. In 1995 the U.S. bailed out Mexico's collapsing economy with $20 billion in support-a bargain at today's bailout prices!

In a time when the financial world is changing-bank failures on top of a mortgage industry crisis, government interventions, and the credit crunch-I begin to wonder, could this be our finest hour?

First, I hope this letter finds you well. I know it does. Despite the turmoil in financial services, the CU movement is alive and well, with over 85-million members, an expanding product and service base, and a strong history of providing great service to members. But there is a problem-and it cries out for your full attention.

For the management at a fair number of credit unions the current economic environment is one many never thought they'd see. Sure, they may have done some worst-case scenario planning as part of their annual due-diligence or participated in a doomsday exercise at one of the management institutes, but that was all make-believe, right?

The securities industry is surfing what looks to be a tidal wave of regulatory reform, hoping to stay ahead of the deluge. Today industry groups around the world released a coordinated report on how to rebuild confidence in securities and improve practices in their markets, in a hail-Mary of self-regulatory fervor.

Net Promoter Score (NPS,) as typically implemented through the "likely to recommend" zero to 10 question, remains a buzz in credit union marketing, primarily because it is simple to implement and easy to understand. It is also highly actionable...if one goes beyond the numbers.

I don't even like turkey but I LOVED this article-the quotes from the one CEO in particular were hysterical...I had no idea that Yogi Berra had worked in the credit union industry!

Unless you've been living in some sort of quasi- dream state for the past few years, you've inevitably heard of people, companies, cities, and even countries "going green."

Last week, three men whose names you may recognize and who had not been in the same room in nearly a century, were all back in the same room again. All in all, you'd have to say they looked remarkably good, given all were born in the 1800s.

December is upon us-make way for the credit-default swap clearing houses! American Banker has described some of the obstacles remaining for the two major U.S. efforts to establish central clearing parties for CDS. But will European groups complete their projects any faster?