It's Not All About Greed

Your question of the day on the Credit Union Times Web site – “Do you think the potential for individual profit is at all playing a role in the decision making process of the directors and upper management of credit unions who have decided to convert to a bank?” – hints at the issue of greed; I don’t believe that fairly represents the whole picture. As a CEO of a $500 million credit union, because I love what I do, for whom and why, my posture is to support and preserve passionately the credit union model – so long as it continues to be “fun” to do so. If taxation comes our way – and it never should – it is unlikely that added, bank-like powers would arrive concurrently. If one considers this scenario as even a slight possibility, the “b” word had better be in your vocabulary. And IF that’s the real world, and IF one intends to convert from a credit union to a bank, and IF one fully intends to convert from mutual to stock form thereafter, then, and only then do the rules change. From the perspective of someone who lived on the “other side” for 20 years, compensation for bank directors and bank senior management is different than that of credit unions – not necessarily evil and greedy. Thus, my question is, how can one realistically answer your question of the day without implicating themselves as greedy? Frederick D. Healey President/CEO Workers’ Credit Union Fitchburg, Mass.