When Credit Union Times asked Fred Johnson, president/CEO for Credit Union Executives Society, what he sees as an emerging trend in the way credit unions are run, one of his responses was "collaboration."

Small credit unions may have few resources of their own, but if they share back-office responsibilities, data processing, compliance, marketing and human resources with other small credit unions, they can begin to function as if they were larger. For example, small CUs might team up and form a partnership with the same IT vendor, or they might share the services of a part-time collections employee.

It's a concept that allows the smallest, community-based credit unions to exist, and as long as members are given access to the products and services they need, the process in which they were made available to them is irrelevant, Johnson explained.

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Natasha Chilingerian

Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.