Lending

With less than stellar gains in lending, credit unions may have to shift their focus even more to meeting members where they are as unemployment, furloughs and foreclosures impact how and if they are able to continue paying their loans.

We all make tough business decisions where there is no black and white, only shades of gray.

Former Continental Federal Credit Union president/CEO Tom Glatt Sr. voluntarily surrendered the keys to a 4,000-square-foot Sedona, Ariz., desert estate and in the process walked out on a nearly $1 million mortgage loan from his former employer.

While Sound Credit Union's business services program has been in place since July 2007, a litany of bank mergers and closures in the area has helped propel its business deposit portfolio over the last year.

The next time President Obama discusses ways to stimulate business lending he would "provide a critical boost" to credit unions by urging a raise in the cap on member business lending.

While there is no hard data on the number of persons attending credit union-sponsored investment education workshops, women are becoming a powerful group to woo.