The Callahan report on credit union financial performance in 2023 exploded like a bomb. Credit Union Times shrieked: “Credit Union Earnings Fell to Record Low in 2023, Callahan Data Shows.”
The publication added a kick with its subhead: “But CU results are even worse when the most recent three months are extracted for earnings and originations.”
Had the sky in fact fallen?
Then I saw a post on LinkedIn by Kirk Kordeleski, the onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union, where he sought to add context to what Callahan had reported and what it in fact means for credit unions.
I immediately contacted him and said we have to do a podcast.
In this show, Kordeleski emphatically says the sky hasn’t fallen for credit unions, nor is it about to fall. In fact he remains very optimistic about the future for the credit unions who in fact comprehend the competitive landscape.
This is not to say all is rosy for all.
The podcast begins with thoughts about the many recent c-suite terminations and the moral of that story is that now, probably for the first time ever, many credit union boards are using competitive performance data to grade their institution’s performance - and they are firing CEOs who don’t measure up.
That’s a tectonic shift for credit union leadership. Kordeleski tells how this came about.
But know this: as I said Kordeleski is very optimistic about the future. In the show he tells what a credit union CEO needs to be doing to succeed in today’s changing universe.
Listen up.