Clark: Stylistically, I would say I'm probably a fairly calm and analytical leader. I like the operational metrics of how we go about running the business. I think my team is already starting to understand this. I am a strategic leader, leading from an executive level, not so much down in the weeds on every little line item of everything we do. I inherited a fantastic team who is well respected throughout the industry. All of them are extremely competent in their roles. I may look to bolster that team in the areas of fraud and security.

CU Times: What changes, if any, are you making to CO-OP?

Clark: We haven't announced any major changes yet. I think that the industry is forcing some things on two fronts. One is fraud, which is continuing to rise across the industry. We need to be in a better position to handle and manage that fraud on behalf of our membership, and for the members behind them. I would also say the regulatory environment continues to be intense. Those two things are probably right at the forefront of things that we're looking at and we want to be better prepared for. Account takeover and card not present are the two big frauds. The fraudsters aren't going to quit just because we rolled out EMV. I think we're going to focus on making sure that our current product set is really solid and then we're going to focus on fraud and security a little more heavily than we have in the past.

CU Times: What are your thoughts about the current credit union landscape and do you have any thoughts about what the industry may look like five years from now?

Clark: We're seeing a large consolidation trend, and very few new credit unions starting. I think that this is a side effect of the regulatory environment. I would probably expect that credit unions in general will continue to consolidate and we'll continue to see credit unions grow larger and larger. I would expect that credit unions as a total percentage of overall deposit shares will continue to grow against the banks.

CU Times: How does that affect your business at CO-OP?

Clark: I think it probably has two effects. One, there's a general sense that we'll see growth in all of our business lines – debit, credit, even shared branching. Then I think that as our credit unions grow in size and complexity, we therefore have to grow in size and complexity, and to be more of a thought leader in technology. That's what our members are asking from us.

CU Times: Is CO-OP working on technology products or services that you expect to introduce into the marketplace over the next few years?

Clark: I think that the lion's share of products and services will be in and around our current space. It will be in debit, credit and our shared branching product, which is something that all of our customers know about, but not many other folks know about. I would expect to see us invest more into direct account-to-account access among our credit union membership. In the world we're living in, people expect things to happen in real time. We have a great infrastructure around that real-time transaction system. Having a layer of security that sits across the top of all of our products, debit, credit, account-to-account access and even call center-type access will be something that we'll be more focused on in the future.

CU Times: A Filene report, “Trending: Credit Unions in 2025” predicted credit union consolidation means the shared branching network will be fully integrated to nearly all credit unions by 2025. Do you agree with that assessment?

Clark: It would be difficult for me to disagree with that assessment. I think credit unions, unlike other financial institutions, have a propensity to be willing to work together for the betterment of the overall cause. I think the notion of shared branching and being efficient with the brick and mortar assets that each of our credit unions brings to the table [leading to] the lion's share of credit unions in shared branching by 2025 … I would certainly believe it. That is a realistic goal.

CU Times: The same Filene study predicted ATMs will be phased out over the next 10 years and will be replaced by smartphones. Do you agree with that prediction?

Clark: I think people have been predicting the demise of cash and ATMs for many, many years. I think it would probably be a pretty aggressive thing to think that it would phase out that quickly. There's a certain section of our economy that is dependent upon cash. I don't think that within the next seven to eight years we're going to see the demise of ATMs or cash. One of the things I do believe is that deposit-taking ATMs will become less and less relevant over time. I think what's likely going to happen is the expansion of ATM teller assist, and any number of things that could be effectively in that category of the teller assist ATM. Lots of financial institutions have started moving to teller assist or automated tellers in their locations as the cost of labor continues to rise.

CU Times: Can you share your thoughts as to why you think credit unions have a strong and bright future?

Clark: There's this whole notion of a shared-type economy. We're sharing cars, we're sharing houses, we're sharing rides and everything under the sun right now, right? I look at credit unions as fitting very well into that type of economy because we're sharing our financial resources effectively with the goal of enhancing everyone's financial position. Credit unions really kind of started as lending clubs if you think about it that way. I think it fits really well into our space. The fact that credit unions have often been early and rapid adopters of technology I think means they're well positioned for the next 10 to 15 years.

When Clark is not working at CO-OP, you may find him and his family hiking on the Appalachian Trail. It's a family mission of sorts. They've already hiked 400 miles of the 2,180-mile long public footpath.