MARSHFIELD, Wis.-Pat Wesenberg knows that she has her work cut out for her. Not only is she CEO of Central City CU in Marshfield, Wis., but she'll spend much of the next year shuttling back and forth between this historical home of credit unions and points around the country in her new position as CUNA Board Chair.
Wesenberg was involved with state-level CU initiatives for years before applying to CUNA's board in 2005, including committees with the Wisconsin CU League and working as an advisory member in various service organizations and in local advocacy efforts. When she was elected to CUNA's board in 2005, "I thought, gosh, pinch me, I can't believe this is happening."
These days things are a little less dreamy, and she takes the helm at the national trade association with plenty of heavy lifting ahead of her. Chief among her tasks, she said, is protecting the CU tax exemption.
Wesenberg acknowledged that it's an issue that credit unions consistently rally around, but "I think there's an opportunity to do a better job of differentiating ourselves from the for-profit financial sector, and I think that provides opportunity not just for the tax exemption, but for perhaps other legislation.Doing a better job of informing not just the legislators but people at all levels of the credit union world [such as members who are legislators' constituents] so that they can do a better job of advocacy when it comes to explaining why we should get the tax exemption."
The Listener In Chief
Wesenberg's described one of her most important roles in her new position as being the listener-in-chief, and she said she hears from "a fair amount of CEOs that they're up against their business cap, and they struggle basically to service their current portfolio without adding any new business."
The larger issue she continues to hear, she said, is that without raising the MBL cap, "it kind of limits the number of credit unions that want to get into commercial lending, because their concern is that with such a low cap, by the time they invest in the personnel and software and everything that's needed to run a successful commercial loan portfolio, they can't put enough on the books to make it a profitable piece of their organization.
"I get the sense that that's where the nation is at on member business lending. I don't hear anyone say 'I don't know why we're wasting our time on that.'"
Not surprisingly, compliance also remains a major topic of conversation, along with making supplementary capital available to credit unions-an item that "certainly is a priority of mine," said Wesenberg.
When it comes to compliance, "it's a matter of continuing to meet with the different regulatory agencies and sharing the concerns, and seeing if there is any way to reduce the burden. Trying to make them understand is it really a safety and soundness issue and does it impact all credit unions of different sizes in the same way? Or is there a point where they maybe wouldn't require certain things at a smaller credit union versus a larger one, or a less complex versus more complex credit union?"
Supplemental capital will depend on a similar strategy, she said. "CUNA has already done a good job of working with NCUA to talk to legislators to share that it is an important need. Credit unions are the only financial institutions in the U.S. that do not have access to supplemental capital, so I think it's an education piece. The other part of it is educating credit unions through the state leagues as to how they can use the capital, and so that they understand the risk and the value to it."
Creating New Alliances
Wesenberg, however, is interested in moving CUNA beyond the standard, boilerplate CU issues.
"I'd really like to work at building a stronger alliance with the co-op sector in general," she said. "I feel like there's tremendous value in credit unions letting people know that they are member-owned financial cooperatives. I think that would spur growth from new members, as well as encourage existing members to increase their membership or increase their service penetration with individual credit unions."
Wesenberg said she had not yet done extensive research on how that could be done most effectively, but indicated it might start with closer ties between CUNA's Cooperative Alliance Committee and the National Cooperative Business Association, which is led by former Missouri CU Association President Mike Beall.
'Exhaustion' After MBL Fight
Wesenberg didn't hesitate when asked what are the major challenges facing CUNA.
"We've been fighting the battle on member business lending for a long time, and I think that there's a sense of exhaustion," she said. "I think from CUNA's perspective we need to go back and look at what we've done in the past ... but find a different way-a different message, a better way to advocate for it. CUNA can do a lot in leading the charge, but I feel the only way we're going to get big wins are if we get the grassroots engaged and involved, becaue I think that the real success comes at home. People have relationships with their local legislators; that's how we make things change."
She believes that "the timing is right" to get CU members energized and engaged at the local level about the MBL fight.
"It's a matter of CUNA working closely with state leagues and doing a thorough job of educating credit unions of all sizes on the benefits and the overall good that it does for credit unions."
Wesenberg noted that MBLs and taxation-perennially the biggest rights credit unions face-have more in common than it might seem. "I think we all know that when taxation is on the table, people are really willing to rally for that; we just need to figure out what makes them rally for taxation and not for other things."
