LaBorde Has a Vision for WOCCU

LaBorde’s global interest in other people, cultures and communities has served her well, as she became the new president/CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions in July.

WOCCU’s board of directors voted unanimously for LaBorde to be WOCCU’s leader after Brian Branch announced his retirement earlier this year.

LaBorde finished her schooling in Atlanta before heading to Nashville, Tenn., for her undergraduate degree. She then spent time overseas before coming back to do her graduate work at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Thinking she’d go into some kind of diplomacy work, LaBorde did a short stint at an embassy in Africa, but realized that “you can’t be in a position of policymaking or government if you really don’t understand the day-to-day lives of people.”

She spent the better part of the past 20 years focused on the work of financial development in low-income areas of the world.

CU Times spoke with LaBorde about her past experiences that led her to become WOCCU’s first female CEO. The following are excerpts from those interviews and have been lightly edited for style and clarity.

CU Times: Can you talk about how your life and career progressed to the point where you’re now leading WOCCU?

LaBorde: A couple of experiences I had early on solidified for me really being on the ground and working with low-income clients and low-income families who were, you know, starting a business, who had lost a business, who were in economies that really had no growth potential. So this was Armenia in the late nineties, which was suffering from an earthquake and there was a real lack of a government that could attract foreign investment. It was really a question of, “How do people survive?” And so my early days were really about trying to think, how do you design financial tools for people who have [business] ideas, but really are left out of the economy, left out of the financial sector?

So that was my foray into financial inclusion – from the ground up.

I have spent most of my career working in a lot of different countries and markets, and trying to understand how to serve a low-income customer.

I think what is exciting for me today, and part of the transition into being interested in this job as CEO of World Council, is with technology and the connectivity that we see globally. It opens up a whole new way to serve people and offer them products and services we never could have before.

CU Times: Is WOCCU keeping an eye on cryptocurrency adoptions happening around the world?

LaBorde: We’re not promoting it nor are we discouraging it per se, but we are monitoring the global trends because of how regulators are responding to that. The Chinese government has just really cracked down on it because it’s launching its own digital currency. Because of our role in advocacy, I’m really trying to pay attention and proactively look at what trends are happening. Ultimately [cryptocurrency issues] will inform how regulators in international bodies start to take some stances on these items that impact our members sooner or later, right? You know, what happens in Basel ultimately starts to show up in state regulatory bodies.

CU Times: You’ve been in this new position for five weeks. As you’ve settled in, what are you seeing as some areas of real potential for WOCCU?

LaBorde: Well, the fact that we have more than 300 million members across 86,000 institutions in over 118 countries, that’s a huge footprint and a huge reach within just World Council’s network that you could, through digital partnerships and digital innovation, be able to leverage to deliver better products and services to members. So where I see great potential is in using technology, not for technology’s sake, but to solve for the real barriers that still exist and [give] people access to good financial information and a range of different products that they can choose from.

And so as partners to communities and to those who are ultimately in the business of trying to provide inclusive services, I think there is a huge ­opportunity to leverage our network and membership to try to really deliver better investments in the communities where we have a footprint.

CU Times: What are the challenges for WOCCU?

LaBorde: There’s a big fragmentation of how regulators are either enabling or not the frameworks already in place. For instance, digital ecosystems are not all the same. The ease of doing business and the risks around cybersecurity – those are all the things where, I think, you do need to look at global impact. But it ends up also needing to be very localized and customized to what’s permissible in each market and that makes it hard.

Because, getting to scale, there are a thousand different ways to get there. But I think all of that is solvable at the end of the day, and so I’m really excited and optimistic about the growth potential especially through partnerships. Because nobody can do it alone anymore.

CU Times: Can you explain the work you’ve already been doing with the G20?

LaBorde: It is the culmination of a lot of work we have been doing with the G20 and the Financial Stability Board to try to prioritize financial inclusion and responsible finance. What we have been arguing for, and we hope is coming out from the G20, is a more intentional language that prioritizes financial inclusion and acknowledges the need for proportionality when you are regulating … and for providers who are providing financial services to all citizens in a responsible and affordable manner.

CU Times: What are your thoughts on being the first female leader of WOCCU? And do you mind that gender is still an issue in these leadership moments?

LaBorde: It makes me pause for a moment, you know, do I need to call it out, being the first woman? And I actually think that for now, because there are not enough first [female leaders], I think calling it out makes people draw attention to it and think about it. By the time we get to the point where it’s so normal that you don’t have to call out a first, then maybe that’s the time when we’ve all been able to, you know, turn the curve. But for me it’s important. I think I do bring a different perspective because of who I am. And I think a diversity of perspective experience approach is a good business practice. There’s lots of evidence for that. And modeling for girls and young women that you can be CEO and all in a whole host of businesses, particularly on a global stage, that’s why I don’t mind you calling it out.