Landmark, founded in 1933 by foundry employees of Rex Chainbelt Co., was originally known as Rex 2 Credit Union. Through the years there have been mergers, charter changes and new names leading to today's community charter and the Landmark Credit Union designation.

Member demographics have also altered. When Kase came on board the credit union still served only the employees of one company, and most were solidly middle income or perhaps upper middle income. Ninety-eight percent of Rex employees were members of the credit union.

Today LCU has branches from the inner city to the western suburbs. Membership comes from a wide range of income and ethnic groups. At one of the inner city branches, probably six or seven of 12 employees are fluent in Spanish as well as English. That wouldn't be true at the western suburban branches.

LCU is discussing opening additional locations probably starting in 2007. The pattern has been to open branches within 15 to 20 miles of each other. Also on the agenda is additional automation.

"We're in the final stages of testing all-electronic indirect lending," Kase says. "There will soon be no paper flowing between the dealers and the credit union. Consumer lending will probably go paperless later this year. A final step would be the mortgage department also going paperless. That's probably a couple years away."

Today LCU is Wisconsin's largest credit union, but Kase downplays growth for the sake of growth.

"It has never been our intention to make the Billionaires Club," he explains. "We've just tried to take care of our members and live up to our brand. In the process we've arrived at the $1 billion mark."

He says the credit union has focused on being a high-volume, low-margin credit union intent on keeping expenses low while offering great service and rates. The result has been steady growth of 10% to 15% a year.

Mortgages have played an important role, with LCU targeting first-time homebuyers and becoming its members' primary mortgage lender. There is also a large indirect lending program. The credit union typically ranks anywhere from first to fifth place in number of car loans written in Southeast Wisconsin.

While achieving $1 billion was a nice landmark in 2005, Kase had some challenges on his mind. The current interest rate structure squeezed margins at LCU as at other credit unions. In the Milwaukee area a lot of new startup banks entered the market making it difficult to attract deposits.

"Some of the large banks here have been bought out by national players, and a lot of their mid to senior managers have gone out and started their own banks. When a bank starts out they raise capital and then they have to build the asset base quickly to put that capital to work," Kase says. "In the past two or three years we've probably seen six or seven startup banks. Those banks are very, very aggressive in terms of paying high rates and attracting deposits. They're not concerned about making money right away. In fact, there was a recent article indicating the Milwaukee area has the third highest ratio of banks to consumers. So we are pretty close to being overbanked."

Kase anticipates those issues will remain in place this year. In fact, LCU expects margin pressure to continue through 2007, at which point Kase hopes long-term rates will separate themselves from short-term rates. The credit union has adopted what he describes as a "moderate" budget, and recently lending has softened a little as interest rates have climbed.

As for local economic conditions, "Wisconsin went through what many other industrial states have experienced," he says. "Manufacturing has contracted and been replaced by service industries. The difference between Wisconsin and Michigan, for example, is that we never had huge plants such as car assembly plants that employed thousands and thousands of workers.

"We've worked our way through that [contraction] and today the state economy is pretty strong. Home buying has been strong with a boom on both the home and commercial side."

Kase earned his degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin. After service in the Army he worked for one year at a finance company then two years at what was then Milwaukee Municipal Credit Union before becoming head of LCU. He has been married for 36 years, and he and his wife have two grown children and a grandson. In the summer he enjoys golf, in the winter he's on the ice curling. He's a private pilot, with part ownership in an airplane. "My life in the credit union world has been a good one," he declares. "I have a terrific board of directors, some who have been with me from the beginning. They know what their job is, I know what my job is, and we don't get in each other's way.

Anything he's proudest of in his credit union career?

"I get calls from people who say, `I don't know if you remember this but you helped me out when I was unemployed' or `you helped me out when I had a family situation.' There's nothing I feel better about than all the people we've helped along the way." -

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