The future for credit unions is electrifying–literally. Implementing the best that modern technology has to offer is the way to go, in terms of cost savings as well as service. Attracting the up-and-coming generation of 'grown-ups' (a.k.a. borrowers) is crucial to the survival of the credit union community, and one way of doing that is offering them services anytime they want them. Gen Yers have been raised in an online world and are completely at ease with and accustomed to online services–just witness the wildly huge success of companies like EBay and even First National Bank of Omaha.

We Gen Xers (still borrowers, but also savers) are pretty well steeped in technology also, and many of the baby boomer grandparents are going online as well for work and to keep in touch with their trans-continental grandchildren.

Yes, firstnational.com ranked No. 6 in Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine's recent survey of top 10 online banks. First National has just $18 billion in assets under management. Yes, that's extremely large for a credit union, but compare it to the big boys on the list such as Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America. It's all relative: credit unions are to First National what First National is to the largest banks.