BROCKTON, Mass. — Echoing a now-growing industry theme, the new chairman of the Massachusetts Credit Union League maintained today that CUs have important lessons to be learned from Wal-Mart's "Money Center" expansion about serving the unbanked.
As contrasted to the giant retailer out to make a buck in getting low income customers to "spend money in their stores," CUs have a golden opportunity to show that "we are in the business of offering fairly priced services, really helping people save and manage their finances wisely," said James W. Blake, the league head and president and CEO of the $1.4 billion HarborOne Credit Union here.
A good example of the CU will to truly serve the unbanked is the nationwide expansion of the REAL Solutions project at state leagues including Massachusetts which this spring joined the National Credit Union Foundation co-op venture which includes payday, checking and savings products.
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Formal announcement of Massachusetts sign-up with REAL Solutions as well as three other New England states, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, came during last week's annual meeting of the Massachusetts Credit Union League convening in Nashville, Tenn.
Speaking at the Nashville meeting was Lois Kitsch, the national program manager for REAL Solutions, who said also that Wal-Mart's 1,000 "Money Center" venture is a wake-up call to CUs "that we can do better" than the retailer in assisting the unbanked get into the financial mainstream.
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