You may think you have it tough managing a credit union in the pandemic. You need to talk with David Tuyo, CEO of University Credit Union, with assets edging up towards $1 billion and a growth rate in loans that’s running around 30% per year.
2020 too saw sustained growth – in assets, loans, and even members. That’s despite the reality that University serves a membership of what the name suggests: colleges and universities, mainly in California, some faith based (St. Mary’s College in northern California and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles), others large publics (UCLA and University of California Irvine). The kicker is that California colleges were closed for much of 2020 due to the pandemic and yet University grew.
And every University branch was closed. Still it thrived.
How? Tuyo tells in this podcast.
The credit union had had a multi-year plan to go full into digital. What had been envisioned as a three year transformation took three months.
He also notes that University’s compensation is entirely team based – that is, raises are a result of the organization’s performance. Not the individual’s.
Another Tuyo word of advice: now is the time to let your nerd out. He means dig into and revel in the data. Really know your members and prospective members, what they need and want.
At around $875 million in assets, can University survive? Tuyo says his benchmark is that he wants the credit union to perform at the rate of a $2 billion institution. That, he thinks, is the velocity that is needed to stay competitive in a world where a handful of big banks control half the banking in the U.S.
Along the way mention is made of a CUBroadcast show he did. It’s linked here.
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