SEATTLE — The Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states was a great leap forward for gay rights, but the effort to establish a credit union for the LGBT community is still struggling to get off the ground.
The institution — to be known as Equality Credit Union — is a project of the
Endicott said that in the wake of that campaign, he and other Equality CU principals have met or had discussions with teams from Xceed CU of El Segundo, Calif.; Van City CU, Vancouver, B.C., GTE Financial in Tampa, Fla., and Seattle-based Verity CU, among others, as part of their search for a partner.
The idea, he explained, is for Equality CU to operate in a "doing business as" fashion "powered by some other institution." Such DBA arrangements are not unheard of, though it's more common to see it happen as part of a merger, in which the approach allows the merged CU to retain its brand identity for marketing purposes.
For Equality CU, a DBA arrangement would not only speed up the chartering process and avoid many of the hurdles associated with starting a new credit union, but it also enables the parent institution to focus on providing financial products and guidance for members, while the Saga Center handles the outreach.
"We would provide the outreach, the research, the building bridges for different organizations — social-service organizations and clubs in areas where there is an LGBT presence, but not necessarily the outreach by the financial services industry or much other than support services," said Endicott. Changing the group's name from Equality Washington to the Saga Center, he added, was part of an effort to give the group a more national footprint.
Next Steps
Endicott praised the credit unions his group has worked with so far, though the Saga Center has turned down a few offers from different CUs already and is in the process of refining its proposed partnership agreement.
"Even though we are the group in need looking up to a potential partner, we expect some authenticity and support in terms of reaching out to people that are hard to get to, and changing those people's lives is where we measure success," he said. "It's not just a bottom-line change in a credit union; it's seeing a change in the culture of the community."
For now, the Saga Center and the ECU team continue to work with other CUs, and Endicott is eager to move the project forward — the credit union has been in the works in one form or another for more than 18 months, he said.
"The time it takes to find a partner is not easy, especially with CEOs who are busy, and then they have to take things to their boards who are all a bit cautious — which they should be," he said. "There is a partner out there somewhere who understands."
While its search for a partner organization continues, Endicott said his group is considering forming a consultancy in order to "reach out to credit unions to try to do some assessments and competency training to bring awareness to credit unions." That idea was spawned by learning about the Community Partnership Program at VanCity CU, explained Endicott, which helped show how the group "can continue to function and make change" until it finds a partner or even without a partner.
White Paper
In the meantime, Endicott's group has been advocating for credit unions, partnering with CUs and other groups for financial literacy events, and even assisting the Filene Research Institute with a forthcoming white paper on the economic needs of LGBT consumers, including holding focus groups, providing research statistics and more.
According to George Hofheimer, Filene's chief knowledge officer, the paper is part of a series the think tank has published in recent years on the needs of underserved communities.
Though the paper is not yet finalized, Hofheimer said it raises a number of key questions for credit unions.
"What are the socioeconomic factors that describe the LGBT community and what does that mean for credit unions?" he said. "One of the popular assumptions is that the gay population in the U.S. is wealthier than average, and we're pulling out statistics from a variety of studies from the academic world that identify that as not necessarily true. Just to raise awareness about what the population looks, acts, sees, feels and does as it relates to financial services could be beneficial for financial institutions, and especially credit unions."
In 2012 Filene issued
"This one takes a step back and tries to do some identification of definitions and facts and data we didn't cover in the past," he explained. "It's really looking at incidents of discrimination from a micro- and macro- perspective, looking at socioeconomic factors, looking at social shifts in perceptions around LGT issues, looking at specific needs and then some generalized recommendations for credit unions as to how they may want to approach this market, if at all."
SCOTUS Fallout
Endicott cautioned that the Supreme Court's ruling doesn't mean the fight for equal rights is over, and said it "doesn't institute understanding or competency."
Many couples will be getting married in states that aren't supportive of same-sex marriage, and then going to banks or credit unions for financial services. But those institutions, he said, "are still not competent in their understanding of this community. There are going to be consequences to our successes, and the consequences may be that in 29 states it is still legal to turn somebody down for a loan based on gender identity or sexual orientation."
For credit unions that want to reach that market, Endicott said
"Our country is still very divided, regardless of the Supreme Court decision," he said, "and that means organizations that provide support and progressiveness have to step up and say 'We're going to step into this void' and make sure that families are treated fairly; that people who need help receive the extended hand and any sort of assistance that they can get so we can begin to progress uniformly as a nation under the banner of equality."
