SECU is different!
Recognize the quote and Michael Douglas from the movie "Wall Street"?
Douglas starring convincingly, as Gordon Gekko, Wall Street profiteer extraordinaire, opined: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. It captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upsurge of mankind."
Maybe so, probably not; but why bring this up? Because "profiteering" appears to be a growing, unseemly trend among credit unions and their "Legacy 8-type Boards" espousing "Gekko-wannabee" leadership. Keep hoping that this problem is simply a misunderstanding of the purpose and structure of credit unions - some sort of "institutional ignorance virus", but it is beginning to appear pandemic.
If you look back at Chapter 4 [link] and Chapter 5 [link], it is clear that credit unions were purposefully established as not-for-profit cooperatives. Unfortunately, there are some "anonymouse" commenters, who can't seem to grasp that fact. It's as though they have eaten their ice cream a little too fast and are suffering from an "Economics 101 brain freeze" - for a few, it may be something more permanent.
😎 Lets ask those naysayers the big question! But first to be clear, a for-profit business - of all stripes - over time, generally ends up with three "constituencies", three interested parties - 1) the investors (owners), 2) the employees, and 3) the customers. The brain-frigid anonymice claim that the sole purpose of a business is to make a profit for the investor-owners (ala Gekko and perhaps Milton Friedman). Which to make that "cold-hearted thinking" explicitly clear, that means the interests of the employees and the customers come second - often a distant second - to the interests of the "in it for the profit" investor. Okay, I guess... if you can face the Gekko (or "gecko", a carnivorous lizard - you did get that, right?) in your mirror each morning and live with that.
On the other hand, a credit union only has two constituencies: 1) the member-owners and 2) the employees. In a credit union there are no separate "in it for the profit" investors, there are no separate "customers" (although we acknowledged that many members don't know that - "the Kleenex dilemma"). Credit union member-owners don't expect to profit or gain through an appreciation in their share accounts - as opposed to investor-owned, bank stock . Credit union members receive their "return on investment" through lower loan rates, higher savings rates, fewer fees, better quality service.
Last year at the SECU Annual Meeting, the CEO proudly bragged (un-apologetically!), with the Board beaming in "cool, icy" agreement, that the Credit Union had made a record "profit" of $587 million in fiscal year 2023 (topping the prior record $563 million in 2022).
😎 So here's the $587 million question for the SECU Board: In a year when SECU owners were paid non-market rates on their shares, fees and loan rates uniformly rose, and the quality of service appeared in decline:
✅ "How did Credit Union member-owners "profit" by owning and investing in SECU last year? If the member-owners didn't "profit", who did? **
** (... and for the "brain-frozen anonymousers", can we at least agree that for the member-owners; SECU has been a "non-profit" for the last 3 years?)
... BTW, the SECU employees in the trenches claim: "It wasn't us!"
yachts, cashguns, before tax logo wear, exec gym , island hopping?
ReplyDeleteThat is before the "profit" as business expenses
DeleteI would like to hear more about @ 7:16. I am an employee in the western part of the state and don't get much information on these things.
DeleteThey profited good faith?
ReplyDelete"Credit union members receive their "return on investment" through lower loan rates, higher savings rates, fewer fees, better quality service."
ReplyDeleteHear, Hear ... what else is left to say except that we don't have any of that now, now do we?
This is just corporate deception as they no longer operate as a credit union ...
ReplyDeleteSo many of these "employees in the trenches" truly don't understand the magnitude of how all the decisions over the past few years will affect them. The promotion freeze and career path delays under the guise of "comp study" have set us years behind. Once job descriptions come out and this promotion freeze ends there won't actually be any promotions. These positions are already "overpaid" you'll get a one time bonus for a promotion. And there isnt enough money for everyone that deserves a promotion to get one. It will take years to catch everyone up. Trench employees arent even close to being out of the woods. Even if decisions are ever made
ReplyDeleteThey're not interested in anything but getting rid of employees and going all tech (it would be done by now but they can't seem to find a core system to do this)... you'll be "speaking" to a bot before it's all said and done. I mean come on, how long does it take to write up job descriptions? Job Description: 'We are going to make it sooo miserable for you we hope you leave and we don't have to tell the public that we are laying off' .. there fixed it for ya... No Charge! you can pass on the $50 million you're wasting on those who are suppose to write this up to the "employees in the trenches" (Not C-Suites!)
DeleteThat is why it is so important to change the board again this October. Brinson, Fleming, Williams and Wooten are the ones we must vote off this year. If the board changes, RBL can go away in a day. The training modules can be reinstated fairly quickly. Everyone MUST go through them. Just like before Hayes and Brady. Start bringing everything back in house, end outsourcing of jobs from North Carolina and SECU. It can be put back together again-- unlike Humpty-Dumpty. Employees can have a clear career path that encourages and rewards serving members-- helping folks get on and stay on their feet financially. Keep the money in North Carolina--stop sending it out of our communities and state! Then put safeguards in place to prevent the takeover ever again by a rogue board like this "legacy" board led by Chris Ayers and now Mona Moon!
DeleteCustomer service will drop significantly when members have to call In to speak to damn robot. So dehumanizing for employees and the membership. Let them talk to us workers! AI is not needed! We have humans souls that need to provide for their family. Replacing them with AI is the worst thing this company could do…
DeleteDo you think when the board and CEO meet they say and think, 'how can we reward our member/owners and make life better for our "employees in the trenches"'?
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA WE KNOW THESE GREEDY PIGS DONT THINK THAT! They literally go into the office each day and say “how can I make more and more money for myself while doing the least work possible?” They’ve done it! Mr. Hayes never even assisted a member and made millions! Wow! Ain’t that nice?
DeleteThat’s how you know there is a problem in America….such a tiny population controls and hordes the wealth while we fight for scraps. This shouldn’t exist especially here at SECU.
DeleteI get the feeling Jim Hayes never earned a dime of his money. He just got jobs because of connections. No grinding it out like Mike Lord did as a teller at one time. Just a guy with a rich family that gets handed great job after great job. Never told his sh** stinks until he got to SECU…a workers co-op…and he gets put in his place and leaves. The power of the worker co-op my friends…don’t lose it….#4MoreIn24
DeleteLet's be honest. Not as many employees will be needed once the Local Govt split happens. How much of our business will go away in that one night by not being able to help them anymore?
ReplyDeleteI will be shocked if that actually ends up happening. At my branch probably half our members are LGFCU. Many of them are joining state side if they can.
DeleteLgfcu makes up less than 10% of transactions. So not really that much
ReplyDelete