ST. LOUIS - Beware of paralysis.
"There's almost a split in the market, and everyone is just about frozen in the execution of the strategies they have been building for the last three to five years. The market has scared them, and now they're thinking maybe that strategic vision is wrong," said Kevin Blair of NewGround. "A pause is occurring as people wonder if now is not the right time to execute. And that's where the golden opportunity lies, because the people who are afraid to execute will be left in the rearview mirror when the market turns around, and it will."
Retail delivery systems, Blair said, are still the right strategy, and a true retail roll-out takes one to two years, so he suggests credit unions who are in the midst of implementing a retail strategy stay the course.
"While some are frozen, on the other side, some are being very aggressive right now not just despite the turbulence but because of the turbulence," he added. "Now is the time to attack. With the failures of Washington Mutual and Wachovia, there's going to be run-off, and credit unions can capitalize on that."
Pricing is going to become increasingly competitive, Blair noted, so as consumers are looking for options to (safely but with value) preserve their funds. "National banks have been branching very aggressively for the last seven to 10 years, and now that's falling off," he observed. "Community banks and credit unions are still playing catch-up."
But even as some of the big boys sell off some of their branches, credit unions will want to wary of snapping those locations up, as they may have a lingering "bad" perception for some time to come.
Blair's Tips & Strategies
* Contractors are hungry, so the price of both real estate and construction have dropped. "If you see a deal and you have the capital, go for it, even if you're just going to land bank it."
* "The strength of the credit union market is the massive weakness of the big national banks," Blair said. "People look at them and say, 'They're disconnected, they don't care about us, they're in trouble.' Credit unions need to get out there and hammer home that 'We're stronger, we're equally sound with equal protection for your money."
* Over-communicate with staff-particularly front-line staff-and members on a daily basis.
* Rather than build new branches, look at ways to optimize your existing branch network.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
