Heather Anderson's Oct. 2 article, The Lowdown on Serving Low-Income Populations: Executive Editor's Column, presented an honest and unbiased view of the challenges in providing financial services to less-affluent members of society: the population the credit union movement came into existence to serve.  

The article highlighted the real-world problems associated with handling the financial affairs of financially-strapped consumers; most notably, the difficulty of crafting an acceptable risk and reward business case from a population that is unlikely to leave much money in the credit union, and may find it difficult to live within their means. Moreover, how could credit unions accomplish these objectives without charging fees that punish members for their precarious financial positions, or driving themselves out of business. 

But the article's cautionary message focused solely on the difficulties of serving members and cultivating prospective members only through traditional branch locations. It ignored potential alternatives.