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NAFCU’s Berger: Four lessons for credit union success

WASHINGTON, DC (June 15, 2016) — National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) President and CEO Dan Berger discussed ways credit unions around the country are facing down the disruptors in the financial services market – and, in turn, growing membership and portfolios to record levels – during remarks today before NAFCU’s 49th Annual Conference and Solutions Expo in Nashville.

“America needs more of what you offer,” Berger told conference attendees. “They need less Wall Street and more Main Street. While banks make money off of their customers, you help your members manage their money. It is an important difference. It is perhaps THE difference. The better you perform, the more people you help.”

Berger shared insights he and the NAFCU staff have gleaned during their visits to more than 300 credit unions across America over the past 18 months. He distilled these into four lessons learned from credit unions:

Dare to stand out: “Credit union staff are getting out from behind their desks, away from the branch and out into the community,” said Berger. “They’re visiting their select employee groups or becoming involved with their single-sponsor memberships. They know the value of creating and fostering relationships. They’ve learned to tell the credit union story through community involvement.”
Innovate: “Credit unions that are leaders in innovation understand that improving the member experience is always the end goal,” said Berger. “It is better to be member-centric than number-centric. In today’s market, products and services are not competitive advantages. Relationships are.”
Give your members something to talk about: “With online reviews, social networks and mobile web access, it’s easy for your members to know as much about your products and services as you do,” Berger said. “Member experience correlates to loyalty.”
Hustle: “Hustle is the art of making things happen … Hustle, like innovation, is not an accident. It’s intentional,” Berger noted. “The message we learned from our visits is clear: If we stop growing, if we sit on our capital, if we don’t innovate, if we lose touch with members and forget our mission, we’re inviting trouble.”

Berger highlighted the many creative ways credit unions nationwide are working to produce outstanding results. Some were as fundamental as wearing credit union shirts in the community and leading food and school supply drives, while others created state-of-the-art branches and have invested in new technologies to better serve their millennial members.

The NAFCU president championed credit unions’ enterprising spirit. “Credit unions have a desire to stand out in a highly competitive environment. There’s a can-do spirit: Fierceness in the face of competition. Relentlessness, smarts and hard work.”

He noted how that can-do spirit and hard work has paid off, with credit union membership nationwide growing to nearly 104 million, and share and loan growth to more than $1 trillion and nearly $800 billion, as of March 30.
In closing, Berger noted, “If we work together, we can kick the tails of the banks and the disruptors like Google and PayPal. We can convince consumers that credit unions are the best financial institutions. But we must work together. And more importantly, we must hustle.”

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is the only national trade association focusing exclusively on federal issues affecting the nation’s federally insured credit unions. NAFCU membership is direct and provides credit unions with the best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance. www.nafcu.org.

About NAFCU

The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions is the only national trade association focusing exclusively on federal issues affecting the nation’s federally-insured credit unions. NAFCU membership is direct and provides credit unions with the best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance. For more information on NAFCU, go to www.nafcu.org or @NAFCU on Twitter.