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Credit Unions Need a New Paradigm to Fulfill Their Original Mission

The credit union industry is searching for improved profitability but is falling into the trap of pursuing business lines and strategies that blur the distinction between banks and CUs. I submit that if CUs dilute their distinction from banks, banks will gain more market share with their vastly larger budgets...

By Staff Writer | Updated on April 15, 2008

The credit union industry is searching for improved profitability but is falling into the trap of pursuing business lines and strategies that blur the distinction between banks and CUs. I submit that if CUs dilute their distinction from banks, banks will gain more market share with their vastly larger budgets and more extensive partnerships. I propose a different course.

That different course can be seen in a political analogy.

There are relevant lessons that can be learned from the success of Senator Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign strategy. It has succeeded in selling messages for new thinking, change and collaboration with a grass-roots voice. His campaign has affirmed that many disenfranchised people can be mobilized. In particular, a notoriously apathetic demographic, young people, have been successfully engaged. One key to this strategy is the perception of choice–differentiating his message from that of Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign and from the current administration, which he has convincingly characterized as the same old political model.

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