By Jeanne Kucey, NAFCU Board Chair
As your new NAFCU board chair and a credit union CEO, I hope to provide you with helpful insight — not only regarding my experiences but also on what I see as the future of our industry. Throughout this series of questions and answers, I want you to learn a little about me, my credit union and my take on current trends and future expectations of credit unions.
Q: What keeps me up at night?
A: Hurricanes (my credit union — JetStream Federal Credit Union — is located in Miami Lakes, Fla., with branches in Florida and Puerto Rico), fraud, cybersecurity, subprime lending and an increased regulatory and compliance burden.
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing the credit union industry today?
A: Sustained member growth. Credit unions have an aging membership base, with 48 being the average age. There is also a lack of credit union awareness among millennials. Recruiting younger members is challenging, even for credit unions such as JetStream that provide competitive products and services, mobile access and a full suite of financial literacy products.
From the November-December 2018 edition of The NAFCU Journal magazine.