WASHINGTON – CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica is well aware of the notion many in the industry have about CUNA not being able to run a business.
When Mica took over CUNA, running the business side of it was one area he wasn't comfortable with, but Mica said the board wanted him to try to right that ship.
Mica spearheaded the sale of CUNA Services Group to CUNA Mutual Group, where the core product was card services. After the sale of CSG, really all that CUNA had left was some remnants of strategic alliances that Mica said no one wanted.
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Those remnants have turned into 28 solid partnerships, said Mica, that are helping all sizes of CUs save money.
"The reason we kept CUNA Strategic Services and the reason we really put some effort into building it is it's important to the system. Not only could CUNA get along without it, it cost us a lot of money for two or three years," said Mica.
But now CSS is thriving. Revenues have increased every year since 2000, going from $1.9 million in 2000 to $4.8 million in 2005. The unit lost money in both 2000 and 2001 (see chart) and didn't start making a significant profit until 2003 when its net operating margin was $315,000-it was over $1 billion in 2005.
Mica did not want to paint CSS as a profit center for CUNA, but as a benefit for the entire credit union system. "Any money that CUNA Strategic Services makes is shared between its owners, the leagues, for additional services to credit unions," said Mica. "It frees up resources for other projects we have as our mission."
Not very well known, but CUNA's mission now is to focus on three core areas: advocacy, relationships and products and services.
"There is a personal pride when I look at this because there have been a handful of folks in the system who say CUNA can't run a business. We took a small entity that no one wanted and turned it into one that has $160 million worth of products and services flowing through it," said Mica.
Mica said CUNA once ran successful businesses. "According to the old times, for years in the late `30s and `40s, CUNA ran a multitude of successful businesses. It appears to me that we went through a period when the association bite off a little more than it could chew," said Mica.
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