A number of pressing industry items were on the agenda during a recent meeting between commercial lending CUSO Michigan Business Connection and Doeren Mayhew, a leading certified public accounting and advisory firm.

The two entities hosted their second annual Senior Lenders and Executives dinner on Nov. 6. Several credit unions participated in the event for networking and industry education and sessions that ranged from regulatory updates to a discussion on commercial lending and economic trends, according to Michigan Business Connection LLC, an Ann Arbor-based CUSO that serves more than two dozen credit unions and manages more than $250 million of loan assets.

“There is a new generation of talent working in and serving credit unions and CUSOs have a unique opportunity to foster collaboration and industry best practices with and between credit unions,” said Bill Beardsley, MBC president.

Kathryn White, president/CEO of the $92 million NuPath Community Credit Union in Wyandotte, Mich., attended the event and underscored the reasons why such gatherings are helpful to credit unions.

“Since the beginning of the most recent recession, we have all been subjected to continual regulatory changes, which has placed an undue burden on our operations,” White said. By participating in events such as this, we have an opportunity to listen and learn from subject matter experts, who provide extremely useful information.”

White said NuPath can then take the information back to its offices to share and prepare its staff for upcoming changes in the exam process.

Attendees were asked to complete a survey after the event and according to MBC, the respondents overwhelmingly wanted more member business lending sessions in the future.

After hearing the response, both Doeren Mayhew and MBC said they affirmed their commitment to bringing MBL education and networking to credit unions with a primary goal of continuing to help to improve commercial lending results for credit unions.

“We're committed to providing insight into commercial lending best practices, to educating credit unions with the challenges associated with commercial lending and to drive credit unions' member value in a low interest rate environment,” said Robin Hoag, director and shareholder at Doeren Mayhew.

Founded in 1932, Doeren Mayhew has offices in Michigan, Texas and Florida.