Unrelated Things: Credit Union Records and Commercials

The slow-moving world of the pandemic is much more fascinating than I initially realized. I’m not naturally a patient person, but the lockdown forced me, and probably many of you, to wait and watch what was playing out in our country and communities.

Our skeptical selves continued waiting in case that next economic disaster shoe were to drop. But, it hasn’t yet.

Record-Setting

When the shock to our economic system hit as the pandemic turned extraordinarily deadly, it was nauseating to watch as job loss numbers, small business closings and the overall economic outlook took an incredible plunge off a cliff and we didn’t know where the bottom was. Regulators didn’t exactly know what to do. Credit union leaders were taking their best guesses as to how to adjust. Most of the available emergency rip cords were pulled. And you know what? It looks like it worked, at least for the larger credit unions.

Starting at the big-picture level, at the end of April, according to the latest Credit Union Trends Report from the Madison, Wis.-based CUNA Mutual Group, “After falling 3.5% in 2020, we expect the U.S. economy to grow at a remarkable 6% in 2021. That would be the fastest annual growth since the 7.2% reported in 1982, which followed on the heels of the severe recession in 1982.”

At CU Times, most of last year was spent watching all of the economic indicators just drop and drop. We’re now looking at some incredible turnaround in not only the overall outlook, but in some very specific areas.

As we’ve reported, a record amount of home equity and federal loan forbearances have kept many borrowers out of foreclosures, leading to a decline in the foreclosure rate, according to analytics company CoreLogic.

“After a financially challenging year, the healthy housing market and new stimulus measures are helping borrowers get back on their feet,” CoreLogic President/CEO Frank Martell said. “Given these variables, we should begin to see a reduced flow of homes in delinquency in the coming months.”

More specifically, Pentagon Federal Credit Union recently reported its “strongest quarter in the institution’s 86-year history” with total loan originations up 49% from 2020’s first quarter. PenFed also said its auto loans, credit cards, personal loans and refinanced student loans were a record for the credit union as consumer loan originations were 40% higher than during the first quarter of 2020.

The Washington, D.C.-based credit union asset management organization Trust for Credit Unions also set an all-time record, surpassing $5 billion to its asset management funds in April. In November 2020, those funds were around $3 billion.

Many smart people who are good at math and projections believe the economy is on the cusp of a spectacular rebound. NAFCU Chief Economist Curt Long told CU Times in mid-April, “Retail sales skyrocketed in March fueled by stimulus checks, pared back social distancing measures and good weather. NAFCU expects retail sales to remain a major tailwind through the rest of the year, fueling the best year of GDP growth since the early 1980s.”

Long continued, “The past year of volatility should steady once we are past the present burst of commerce. But with plenty of pent-up demand, pandemic savings and eager consumers, the burst should last through the summer at least.”

All of this is to point out that it feels good to see things righting themselves at the moment. Our main concern right now? What’s going to become of the smaller credit unions?

Pandemic Click Brain

While not getting a haircut or really going anywhere these past billion months, like many of you, I’ve explored so many streaming shows I’d never heard of or wouldn’t have given any thought to watching in pre-pandemic times. I went through this phase of watching every BBC police/detective show I could find. And most of them were pretty great.

As of late, I’ve been mining through years and years of old credit union commercials on YouTube. I don’t know why. I don’t know what led me down this path, but I’m happy I did it. I set up a search for credit union commercials going back five to 15 years and I was not disappointed. Some commercials had a very sweet tone to them, while others were insanely violent in a weird comical way. If you need a break to watch some bonkers and old credit union commercials, I have two memorable suggestions.

In 2010, Bucks First Federal Credit Union (which became Inspire Federal Credit Union in 2014) in Bristol, Penn., released a commercial that many of you have possibly heard about. The premise: A car hits a person dressed up in a deer/buck costume, then they tie the buck to the top of their car and take it to Bucks First because the credit union knows how to take care of your bucks. Sure, terrible pun, but I kind of like puns.

Within the first eight seconds of the driver running over the buck, the driver flatly says, “Oh my goodness, I think we just hit a buck!” You can see the smiling passenger actually mouthing the driver’s lines. The fantastically terrible acting doesn’t stop there. Inside the credit union as employees revive the injured buck with massages, cocktail dance parties and a mate to make more bucks, the employee actors are so bad they’re great! In the 1:30 ad, another buck gets run over in the parking lot and the commercial ends with a cheesy freeze frame as people toss tiny stuffed animal bucks in the air. Did all of these bucks die? I don’t know, but I love every single second of this commercial.

If you’re looking for a cringeworthy 60 seconds of your life that you will never get back, may I suggest the Romulus, Mich.-based Public Service Credit Union’s 2010 commercial. It’s literally a large, white male taking off his clothes and bathing in a bath full of cash and rubbing the money all over his body while sexy saxophone music plays. The tagline: “What are the big banks really doing with your money?”

It’s a regrettable commercial that maybe they thought was a hilarious way at the time to visualize the difference between banks and credit unions. I’d almost like to forget this one, but I won’t and neither will the internet.

If you have suggestions of terribly great credit union commercials, please send them along. It’s a new hobby of mine apparently.

Michael Ogden is editor-in-chief for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.