ORLANDO, Fla. – The BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo has been attracting an increasing number of credit unions over the past few years, and this year's conference was no different. The five-day conference held Nov. 14-18 at the Orange County Convention Center drew 450 attendees that included representatives from 16 credit unions. Also listed on the attendee list were representatives from CUNA. Some CUs like Texas Dow Employees CU, not only sent staff to the conference but also board members. The CU's CFO and CIO Carol Stryker said, "We wanted to give them a view of the financial services industry as a whole. They've heard so much about banks, and this gives them a chance to see what that part of our competition is all about as well as see where there are shared opportunities." She added that, "It's important for the board to see that banks are targeting retail customers and to see things that they're providing that we need to know about." Loretta Jackson, VP of mortgage lending for the $950 million Lake Jackson, Texas-based CU that has more than 90,000 members explained that "over the next 10 to 20 years, Hispanics will be the largest purchasers of homes in Texas. Credit unions like ours need to find ways to reach out to them and to find out what the trends are in the banking industry on what it's doing." Stryker added, "It's all about retail delivery. The BAI Retail Delivery Conference is the place to see what's going on with cutting-edge technologies and new retail delivery methods." Bill Dana, CEO, Central Bank of Kansas City, who also spoke at the session, stressed to attendees that, "It's incumbent on us to speed research and development money to serve this market. Those of you who cite regulatory obstacles from doing so should realize that those same regulators want you to have outreach efforts and provide services to this group that our current products aren't delivering." -

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