LAS VEGAS -- With all the hoopla on the beauty of collaboration, some CUSO executives recently shared some of the frustrations they continue to deal with on a daily basis.
Among the most pressing challenges are funding access and a lack of buy-in from credit union management and staff. Those were some of the concerns expressed during a session at NACUSO's annual conference last week. With roughly 20 people participating affiliated with mortgage, credit card, insurance and other CUSOs, most agreed the corporate credit union fallout has many of them concerned about funding alternatives.
On that same vein, someone asked about bringing in non-CU entities as owners. It was suggested that allowing that type ownership "should be built in from the get-go."
On the operation side, an executive from an insurance CUSO asked attendees if their CUSOs run all of their credit union's insurance programs. Another attendee said its CUSO continues to see success after moving its accounting in-house and is now doing payroll for an ATM network.
Getting credit union CEOs, boards and senior staff to support the CUSO's efforts was a struggle for one executive. Incentive programs for referrals were not working. Another executive agreed that building buy-in is an ongoing problem even after training programs designed to bring everyone on the same page had been used. Others in the session said there was a need for more resources to see CUSO benchmark data on things like executive compensation.
To keep dialogue going, a representative from a mortgage CUSO said the relationships it has with non-profits and their national affiliates has served as an effective sounding board to find answers and solve problems.
NACUSO took in the feedback and is discussing the idea of having monthly or quarterly conference calls so that CUSO executives can connect dots to find solutions.
--msamaad@cutimes.com
