CUES CEO Fred Johnson and LSCU President/CEO Patrick La Pine welcome credit union executives to the CU Executive Dialogue.

The inaugural LSCU/CUES Credit Union Executive Dialogue kicked off Thursday in Bonita Springs, FL. Thirty credit union executives from around the country gathered to have open discussions about the future of the movement and to look at scenario planning. Bill Handel, vice president product development of the Raddon Financial Group facilitated a talk on the state of the movement. He said credit unions need diversification of non-interest income options as a key strategy for success.

“We do a lot of research on the economy and overall industry, and specific and detailed research work in the credit union space,” Handel said. “We are monitoring closely what’s happening. What are the critical issues we’re going to need to address? It’s a pretty wide range on the list.”

Handel outlined four challenges for credit unions:

1. Economic conditions will present significant challenges to growth for the next five years
2. Re-regulation is gaining strength
3. The fundamental delivery channel is changing
4. Viability and success will depend on a substantial business model transformation

To read more about each of the challenges, click here.

An executive panel discussion was held with Gregory Smith, president/CEO of Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, Gary Easterling, president/CEO of United FCU of Michigan and moderated by Handel. This discussion gave credit unions opinions from executives from different regions of the country. The main point of the panel discussion was to elicit conversation among credit unions about the future of the movement.

LSCU President/CEO Patrick La Pine welcomed the executives to Florida while providing remarks on the scenario planning that is coming up Friday.