PALO ALTO, Calif. — The fact that credit unions are "not immune" to economic downturns surprised Stu Fisher, SVP of eCommerce at Addison Avenue FCU. He called his assumption that CUs would be able to easily ride out anything the economy threw at them to be his biggest turkey of 2009.
"I always felt that there was a ton of excess capital in the industry; in fact who knew this was going to be a 100-year flood, that capital would largely go away and would continue to go away," said Fisher. "That was a real eye opener,"
But now with the full effects of the recession being felt throughout the industry, Fisher believes that 2010 will, unfortunately, be even worse for many credit unions.
"My feeling about 2010 is that there is a flywheel effect that hasn't totally kicked in yet," he explained. "I think the consolidation in the industry is going to speed up and reveal the truly strong institutions, as opposed to the ones that are just getting by. It is going to fundamentally change the structure of the industry."
