GALVESTON, Texas-During the Texas league meeting, Credit Union Journal asked, "How is your loan volume and what are you doing to drive lending?
Christina Reyna, President and CEO
South Texas Area Resources CU, Corpus Christi, Texas
We are really trying to push lending now. We have not had marketing or promotions for years. I am a new CEO and the former CEO was not as aggressive. We started by reaching out to the membership through direct mail and now we are doing an insert in our local newspaper. We are seeing results as people buy more cars.
Annette Zimmerman
President and CEO
PrimeWay FCU, Houston
It is hard to get too excited, because lending usually picks up in the spring, but it is better this year compared to last year. The turnaround in the overall economy has been slow, but finally people are buying more cars. Auto lending is our biggest category. We do some mortgages, but we outsource those.
Jerry Clancy, president and CEO
Lone Star CU, Dallas
Lending seems to be picking up. We are seeing a little more traffic in most categories over the past few months. Business loans have completely slowed down-we have gotten hardly any inquiries-but auto lending is still our bread and butter. Consumer loans have picked up lately. Mortgages definitely are increasing. We have closed a few and have many prospects in the pipeline. It helps that people are finding it difficult to get a mortgage at a bank, so they are coming to us.
Pamela Stephens
President and CEO
Security One FCU, Arlington, Texas
Lending is picking up after two lackluster years. Many people are buying cars again. We have a promotion that we call "Practice Safe Banking" that is a twist on practicing safe sex. Our membership numbers are up and our deposits are up, so there are lots of opportunities.
Deanne Harris, President and CEO
Freestone CU, Teague, Texas
If we could get more car loans it would be nice. We are working on getting more relationships with car dealers. We have been doing well with real estate loans, but we only want so many of those on our books.
Jason Landry, President and CEO
Neches FCU, Port Neches, Texas
(Not shown) Lending is picking up again. Mortgages are doing well, and indirect lending has improved because more people are buying cars. We do lots of direct mail pieces and we advertise on television.
