WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is undergoing a transformation state-side and overseas, and down the road that is going to impact defense credit unions' field-of-membership strategies.
Roland "Arty" Arteaga, president/CEO of the Defense Credit Union Council said the Department of Defense is assessing its strength levels overseas and trying to reorganize.
"The Department of Defense organizations overseas are still under the Cold War strategy which has been over for many years. The Department of Defense is trying to conform more now with deploying troops to places where they'll be able to move them quickly where they're needed. That means for example that troop levels in Germany may be moved to state-side installations in the U.S., and that will mean closing down some bases overseas.
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Coupled with the state-side troop realignment and base closures expected in 2005 means there will be some volatility and turbulence in the military. Given that, Service Credit Union's decision to expand its field-of-membership was good vision thinking."
Arteaga said the credit union industry should expect to see other defense CUs change their FOM's in the coming years.
"We'll see some of our members (defense CUs) move off military bases and no longer focus their attention on certain military groups. Some of them will convert to community charters or take on select employee groups," he said.
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