LAS VEGAS — A panel of CEOs from leading credit unions inhousing finance told credit union executives attending the AmericanCredit Union Mortgage Association's annual meeting that creditunions have broken through on mortgage lending and face a strongfuture in the field.

They were Patsy Van Ouwerkerk of the 178,000-member, $2 billionTravis Credit Union in Vacaville, Calif.; Michael Valentine ofthe 156,000-member, $1.7 billion Baxter Credit Union in Vernon Hills, Ill.; Nader Moghaddam ofthe 50,000-member, $788 million Financial Partners Credit Union inDowney, Calif., and Terry West of the 413,000- member, $4.7 billionVyStar Credit Union.

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In a Monday discussion moderated by Moghaddam, the panelistssaid they were almost surprised by the strong reaction theirmembers and communities showed toward their housing financeprograms.

“If there is one thing we can say, it's that mortgagelending is here to stay,” Valentine said. “Mortgages are a productwhere credit unions can really shine. When members come to us withmortgage problems that we can help them resolve, they become fansand they tell other people.”

West recounted how VyStar had found that members who take outhousing finance loans with the credit union also doubled theirparticipation in other credit union products and services. He alsoechoed Valentine's comments that working in housing finance hadenormously increased the credit union's profile in the communityand had helped draw many new members.

VyStar's reputation for service and caring for its members hadreached a point, West said, where the CU's housing finance loanswere actually priced a little bit higher than the market. “Wehaven't had to cut our prices to the bone to get the business,” hesaid.

Van Ouwerkerk recounted how her credit union had found a gooddeal of success offering refinanced loans under the latest versionof the Home Affordable Refinance Program and had developed a “HARPlook alike” program for the loans it held in portfolio.

“We figured that our members with loans we held were going toexpect something similar,” she explained.

She was also one of the CEOs who offered counterpoint to West'sobservation about how burdensome federal regulations hadbecome.

West has testified on the topic before the U.S. Senate and told theexecutives that, for the first, new proposed regulation from theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau had made him re-think whetheror not VyStar should continue loan servicing.

“We are staying in it,” he said, “but I really had to thinkabout it:”

But while Valentine acknowledged the burdens of regulations, healso noted they had cleared the market from many of his creditunion's competitors.

Van Ouwerkerk agreed and said that her credit union haddiscovered it needed to actively work against focusing so much oncomplying with regulations that it missed housing financeopportunities.