SCOTTSDALE Ariz. - Cornerstone Advisors has turned to some 20 credit unions to help with its inaugural edition of The Cornerstone Report 2006: Benchmarks and Best Practices for Credit Unions.
Focused specifically on larger credit unions with $350 million or more in assets, the benchmarking study will reflect findings pertinent to credit union operations.
According to Cornerstone Advisors President/CEO Scott Sommer, advisory board participants were selected based on their demonstrated accomplishments in planning, measurement by metrics and profit improvement initiatives. "It was a natural first step to enlist the assistance of credit unions that understand, first hand, the measurements and best practice areas that would be most valuable to this target market, said Sommer. Two CU advisory boards-one made up of CUs with assets from $350 million to $750 million and one consisting of Us with over $750 million-helped fine-tune the questionnaires to generate the most relevant data for credit unions to use in benchmarking, process improvement and strategic planning initiatives. "Working from the inside out enabled the advisory boards to guide Cornerstone in the collection of a unique set of data that is not available from any other source," Sommer said. "This will truly be a one-of-a-kind publication."
More than 40 credit unions have already signed on to take part in the study. Cornerstone expects that number to more than double prior to the July 21 deadline for submitting completed survey.
The Cornerstone Report 2006 will examine detailed productivity and staffing benchmarks in 12 key credit union areas including: Retail Banking, Deposit Operations & Item Processing, Consumer Lending, Mortgage Banking, Business Banking, Loan Operations and Collections, Credit Administration & Special Assets, Enterprise Risk Management, Wealth Management, Corporate Administration, Information Technology, and Training.
The Cornerstone Report 2006 is designed to provide credit unions with key revenue and fee income benchmarks. Participating credit unions will receive an examination of their overall technology spending levels versus peer credit unions as well as an analysis of technology utilized and deployed compared to peers.
The Cornerstone Report 2006: Benchmarks and Best Practices for Credit Unions will be published in the fall of 2006 and will retail for $575.
