Putting one over on our elected reps?
Had much back-and-forth in the last few days over those "financial deserts" manufactured by the Carolinas Credit Union League (CCUL) [link] to try and convince our Legislature to approve 1) open membership [link] , 2) unfettered commercial lending, and 3) crypto investment opportunities for North Carolina's state chartered credit unions.
✅ One commenter said about "financial deserts":
😎 In all these counties, you will be extremely hard-pressed to find anyone who lives more than 8 miles from a bank! The "widows and orphans, under-served" schmaltz is a fabrication, a fiction of CCUL.
Easiest to demonstrate with Greene County because it has a fairly uniform shape. Almost every place in Greene County is within 8 miles of the county seat in Snow Hill. That "blue line" reaches from Snow Hill out @ 8 miles. If you visually "rotate it around", not hard to see that @96% of the County is within the 8 mile circle. For those few who live "on the borders" of Greene County, all are within 8 miles of the banks in Goldsboro, LaGrange, Kinston, Farmville, Ayden, Stantonsburg, Winterville, even Greenville and Wilson in adjacent counties. Greene County folks have easy access to dozens of banks and branches
😎 Don't believe me? Here try it for yourself [link]. When you get to the GIS Map, click on the ruler up in top/right; then click middle measurement box and select "miles" ; then move your cursor to any spot in Greene County, drop a point, and draw a line; to retry, hit "clear" in the measurement box and select miles again.
Same applies for all of Mitchell County; and, in Bertie County "folks on the fringe" have near access to banks in Plymouth, Edenton, Ahoskie, Williamston, etc. The outlier folks in Northampton have a short drive to Roanoke Rapids.
Best of all the folks in Hyde and Washington Counties already have a super, long-established, local, state-chartered credit union, WEYCO, to serve them. In fact WEYCO is open to everyone in the following counties - Beaufort, Bertie, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Hyde, Jones, Martin, Pamlico, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell, and Washington counties. **[the blue seven are Tier 1 counties!]
😎 Why would CCUL seek to undercut the efforts of WEYCO and other N.C. community credit unions with this legislation?
Poodling for someone! ... definitely "bullish"!
Why would CCUL seek to undercut the efforts of WEYCO and other N.C. community credit unions with this legislation? you ask?
ReplyDeleteIt is 100% ONLY because SECU pays a MUCH greater fee to be a member of the CCUL than WEYCO and that is if WEYCO is even a member of CCUL.
There is a reason this is ONLY being discussed by SECU and that is because they are the ONLY entity that wants this bill to pass. It should be called the SECU bill. This bill will ONLY benefit SECU and no other State Chartered Credit Union. If you doubt this I encourage you to contact a CEO or Board Member of any small State Chartered CU and find support for the bill from anyone of those that have looked into the bill.
https://vimeo.com/1072226478
ReplyDeleteSince Weyco Community is being discussed, I feel I need to weigh in. WCCU is not a member of CCUL. We pulled out of the league due to the lack of return on investment. I had brought up few areas such as CDFI that could benefit many smaller credit unions. There was no interest on their part so we promptly withdrew.
ReplyDeleteAs far as H187, I do not support the bill. My opposition has nothing to do with SECU. It has to do with losing the uniqueness of a credit union. There is a difference in bank and a credit union but when you change common bond to common bonds, this minimizes the difference. We as an industry should be leaning into our differences from banks and not blurring lines. The threat of losing our tax exemption will always be there regardless but let's not water down that difference between us and them.
On the bright side, Weyco Community was just rewarded one of the few CDFI grants in NC and we are opening our first new branch is 15 years in Washington NC. So the Credit Union Difference is alive and well so let's keep it that way.
Robb Roberson CEO - Weyco Community Credit Union
@3:53.. been hearing about the tax issue for decades. it's not a real threat. You allow membership to people based on the county they live in. That's a very weak common bond, compared to SEG's, which the industry was founded on. It's less about who gets served, it's more about how they are served. The latter is how we demonstrate we are different from banks. The old-fashioned thinking around FOM is making CU's increasingly irrelevant, and leaders need to embrace the what state and fed regulations allow them to do.
DeleteI couldn't agree more with the comments from 11:38 and 3:53. One of the great things about SECU is that they fought very hard for ALL credit unions, even the very small, seemingly insignificant ones. We could count on them to be our champions. It looks as if that has changed. I'm saddened to see all of this happening.
ReplyDeleteYes for other credit unions in NC, Secu now sucks. complete ah's, both exec and board.
DeleteBig players ruining the industry for personal benefits. Not for the members, not for North Carolina.
ReplyDeletewhat personal benefits?
DeleteNC and SECU are being remade into the image that big money wants, 'members' mean nothing ... collateral damage of the takeover ... Where do member/owners turn to for help in this increased hostile environment?
ReplyDeleteThey disrespect our former CEO's along with all legacy employees... the lobbyists in DC just have their hand out ... your oversight organizations are in on it and pushing for it ... folks with modest means get screwed again ... some things never change!