Celebrating women within our movement

March is Women’s History Month, an opportunity to celebrate and highlight the incredible contributions of women to the credit union movement. Women were integral to the founding of our movement in America, like Louise Herring and Dora Maxwell who realized the financial services of the time were leaving too many behind.

Both attended the 1934 meeting in Estes Park, Colorado that established CUNA, and both leave behind a legacy that we all look up to. It’s no coincidence that we honor outstanding credit unions each year with awards named after these inspirational leaders.

Nearly 87 years later, I’m proud that the credit union movement has so many amazing women leading our movement, from some of the smallest, most nimble institutions to the nation’s largest credit union.

The newly announced Credit Union Women’s Leadership Alliance will create a space for female CEOs from credit unions of asset sizes $300M or less share best practices, foster collaboration, and provide support and mentoring. 

Credit Union Magazine has released several profiles of female leaders in our movement, and I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on the past, present, and future of women in the credit union movement.

Learn more about these inspiring credit union leaders >

Member business lending webinars available in March

We’re happy to announce a series of live and recorded webinars on business lending. We’ve designed these webinars to allow credit union lending staff to take the ones most relevant to their role:

• Lending to Businesses in the Age of COVID-19 (recorded)
• Repaying Business Loans: The Role of Cashflow, Collateral, and Personal Guarantees (recorded)
• Key Ratios in the Analysis of Member Business Loans
• (March 16, 2 p.m. ET)
• Business Tax Returns: How to Properly Use for Business Credit Analysis Purposes (March 30, 2 p.m. ET)

Ceballos named Credit Union Association of New Mexico president/CEO

Congratulations to Juan Fernandez Ceballos for being named the new president/CEO of the Credit Union Association of New Mexico, effective July 1, the first Latino professional to lead a state credit union association. Juan is an experienced credit union leader, and we’re excited to partner with him.

New advisory committee for Associate Business Members

We were pleased to announce this week the creation of the Associate Business Membership (ABM) Advisory Committee to provide advice, guidance, and strategic direction to CUNA when it comes to engaging as an associate business member. Thanks to the inaugural members for their participation—we hope they will assist in driving the value that CUNA ABM continues to have.

Continuing to amplify our message

We continued to amplify our message on promoting financial well-being for all and advancing the communities we serve, through the following op-eds:

• My thoughts on the importance of promoting financial well-bring for all in CUToday; and
• CUNA’s Chief Political Officer Richard Gose on how to create data-driven storytelling in CUInsight. 

More from 360-degree advocacy

• We told the House Small Business Committee that MBL flexibility could get $5 billion in capital to small businesses without using any additional government funds.
• We wrote to the House Financial Services Committee about how member business lending and field of membership updates could advance women and minority-owned businesses. 
• We called on a House subcommittee to support and implement COVID-19 policies that protect consumers and financial institutions. 
• We strongly support the FHFA’s efforts to build a strong enterprise liquidity framework. We wrote to the agency Tuesday in response to an FHFA proposal to implement four liquidity and funding requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• We provided comments in response to NCUA’s request for information on the agency’s communications and transparency.