Renaissance Commission Presents Vision for Credit Unions' Future

June 21, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Wolff
(202) 218-7745
mwolff@cuna.com

MADISON, Wis. – After weighing input over the past year from thousands in the financial services community, CUNA's Renaissance Commission presented the CUNA Board today with a vision for credit unions' future.

The Renaissance Commission's report contains four "vision statements" to define key characteristics of future credit unions:

• Mission
• Powers and Authorities
• Field of Membership
• Regulation and Insurance

Renaissance Commission Chairman Frank Pollack, CEO of Pentagon Federal Credit Union in Alexandria, Va., said these definitions are critical to ensure that credit unions remain viable financial institutions. "If we allow ourselves to be defined by others, others will frame our future," Pollack told the CUNA Board. "We will not survive as an industry if we stay with the status quo."

After receiving the report, the CUNA Board took several actions to facilitate further discussion within the credit union movement:

• Credit unions and leagues will be asked to review the Renaissance report and provide their input to CUNA's Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC).
• The GAC will examine the practicalities and risks of each recommendation.
• The CUNA Board will receive the GAC's report, and consider adopting the Renaissance Commission recommendations as policy, at its Sept. 24 meeting in San Francisco.

"This has been a thoughtful, careful and inclusive process," remarked CUNA Chairman Dave Maus, who created the Renaissance Commission. "The Commission embarked on the most comprehensive inventory ever taken of credit unions' future. It is not the last word in what is best for every credit union, but it is the most ambitious effort to understand what can best help the most members."

The Renaissance Vision Statements are attached. More details will follow in a special issue of NewsWatch, and the Commission's report will be posted on CUNA's Web site (www.cuna.org).

Credit unions can offer their input in two ways:

• E-mail rencomm@cuna.com
• Call 1-800-356-9655, ext. 4712

CUNA Vice Chairman Barry Jolette, as chairman of the GAC, plans to convene the committee in mid-July to take the input into consideration and begin exploring the recommendations.

"We will seek enhancements without risking our unique standing in the financial services community," Jolette assured. "We remain committed to credit union principles: not-for-profit, volunteer-directed, cooperative institutions that exist to provide financial services to their members. We won't risk the benefits that have resulted from these principles -- particularly our tax-exempt status. We don't want to be banks, making profits for shareholders. We just want to continue to be a viable financial option, with flexibility to adapt to our members' changing needs."

With its network of affiliated state credit union leagues, CUNA represents America’s 10,500 credit unions – which in turn are owned by more than 80 million consumers. America's credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives where people are worth more than money. For more information, visit www.cuna.org.

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