HOUSTON - Credit unions in Texas are seeking to reach a new level of “consciousness” with legislators, including joining the personal video revolution as a way of getting their members’ faces in front of lawmakers.
Dick Ensweiler, Texas CU League CEO is asking credit unions to supply stories about their members, as told by the members. In turn, he said the league will deploy the videos as a means of showing elected officials the passion members have for their credit unions.
Ensweiler told Credit Union Journal the effort is designed to reach the “next level of consciousness with our legislators.”
“We have been telling them for four years how we make a difference in our members’ lives,” he said. “The banks say everyone does that. We want short videos we can send to the legislators and say. ‘These are your people back home; your constituents.’”
Members should be asked how their credit union moved beyond being merely a financial institution to come to their aid or make a difference in their lives, Ensweiler explained. He said the Texas league is particularly interested in stories of how CUs provided assistance that sparked or sustained a small business.
“Banks do not adequately serve that niche, but they want to control us,” he declared. “It is kind of like a big brother with a little brother and a toy. The big brother isn’t using the toy so the little brother tries to play with it, but the big brother says ‘no.’ The big brother doesn’t want to play with the toy, but he doesn’t want the little brother to have it, either.”
REAL Solutions
Less than a month before the league’s annual meeting last week, it joined REAL Solutions, a National CU Foundation program designed to offer a better alternative to payday lenders and check cashers. Ensweiler noted many people have talked in recent years about CUs being a better alternative to payday lending/check cashing, but when a credit union actually attempts to offer such services, it discovers they are expensive and require a great deal of manpower.
“The REAL Solutions project involves hundreds of credit unions across the United States offering best practices for payday lending services. They let other credit unions know what works and what won’t work.”
REAL is an acronym for Relevant, Effective, Asset accumulating and Loyalty producing. Ensweiler said pilot programs have been established in several Texas cities, including 24 in Houston and Dallas.
Ensweiler noted some financial institutions shy away from trying to serve the low-income market. He asked rhetorically, “Do you think those payday lenders and check cashers would be in your neighborhoods if those people were not profitable?” In discussing the issue with Credit Union Journal, Ensweiler said Texas CUs’ will look to take advantage of the “field coaches” for REAL Solutions who are provided by the National CU Foundation.
“We have a team of five TCUL people who are dedicated to REAL Solutions,” he said.
Looking Forward
The troubles in the economy–and specifically the housing market–have not proved to be a significant drain on Texas CUs, Ensweiler believes. He said the state’s housing market did not experience the run-up in housing prices that other states did, therefore there has not been a dramatic collapse (CU Journal, April 14).
“Yes, we have had some foreclosures, but not like other states,” he assessed.
A program TCUL launched in 2006 may have helped some smaller credit unions avoid lending troubles, Ensweiler continued. He said the league began offering access to shared compliance officers two years ago. Small CUs that cannot afford a compliance officer full time still can obtain good advice through the program, he said.
Looking forward, Ensweiler said staying relevant to larger CUs is “always going to be a challenge to state leagues.”
“We are doing a number of things so we don’t lose that relevancy. One area in particular is collaboration with CUSOs. CUSOs offer a trust factor, and we want to create collaboration on products and services other credit unions can share.”
