Skip to main content

The National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions Inc. (NCOFCU) Closes its 20th Annual Meeting and Conference

Fort Worth, TX October 2, 2021 - Credit Unions serving first responders from across the country met in Fort Worth, TX on September 29 - October 2 to discuss issues facing their credit unions. This was NCOFCU's 20th annual meeting for credit unions serving the firefighter and the first responder community. 

NCOFCU CEO, Grant Sheehan, said: "The conference was very well attended by credit unions from across the country." Sheehan added, "This is not your run-of-the-mill conference. It's unique, as all attendees have a common bond in serving their select group of members– firefighters and first responders."

Key topics discussed included the national economic outlook, mobile banking, business lending, legislation, NCUA regulatory update, executive succession planning, salary setting methodologies, new technology coming at CUs, case study marketing programs, implementing social media programs, and both business and personal cybersecurity.

Speakers included Rodney Hood, NCUA Director; Kurt Long, NAFCU; Michael Petrone, CUNA Mutual Group; Michael Moebs, CEO Moebs Services; Randy Thompson, TCT Solutions; Marsha Earl, NetEx Consulting; Brendan McDonough, McDonough Consulting; DeeDee Myers, DDJ Myers Ltd; Eric Isham, CEO Omnicommander; Jim Davis, Fort Worth Fire Chief; Michael McCormick, NCOFCU Board Chairman; Tim Green, CEO F&A Credit Union; Donya Johnson, CEO Nashville Firefighter CU; Bonnie Sensing, Treasurer Nashville Firefighters CU.

The 2022 NCOFCU conference will be in New Orleans, LA, at the Royal Sonesta October 5-8, 2022.

The council meets once a year at the NCOFCU Credit Union Conference and continues their established relationships through NCOFCU's Website www.ncofcu.org, Blog, Newsletters, Facebook, Tweets, and Listserv. This exclusive networking leads to the continued discussions of best business practices, products, and services that cannot be found anywhere else.

NCOFCU is the only organization exclusively representing credit unions serving first responders that collectively serve over 950,000 members and control more than 20 billion in assets. The council's purpose is to protect and preserve the vision and purpose of credit unions serving first responders. In addition, NCOFCU seeks to leverage its collective resources to further first responder credit unions' growth, development, and interests by providing educational and informational exchange opportunities, promoting safety and financial soundness.

A volunteer board of directors directs the council. Members of the board include; Chairman: Michael McCormick, V. Chairman San Diego Firefighters FCU; 1st V. Chairman: Bonnie Sensing Treasure Nashville Firefighters CU; 2nd V. Chairman: David Lantrip Director Houston Firefighters FCU; Treasurer: Gene Benick Newark Firefighters FCU; Secretary: Brian Kurzel Director Charlotte Fire Dept. CU; Directors: Linda Williams CEO Akron Fire & Police CU; Michael Tobler Chairman NY Firefighters Bravest FCU; Andy Doyle Director F&A CU; John Cowin Chairman Syracuse Firefighters CU; Associate Directors: Sean Costello Director Boston Firefighters CU; Ronald Jackson Treasurer Firefighter First FCU; Al Comeaux Chairman Baton Rouge CU; Staff: Grant Sheehan CEO

About the National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions Inc.

The National Council of Firefighter's Credit Unions (NCOFCU) was founded in the State of Florida on February 22, 2010, by representatives of the nation's firefighter credit unions. Information is available from the Councils' website at https://ncofcu.org or by contacting Grant Sheehan at 305-755-3302, ceo@ncofcu.org.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Your Credit Union Without Expanding Your FOM

For many firefighter and other credit union primarly serving first responders, growth often feels tied to one big decision: expanding the Field of Membership (FOM). But what if you didn’t have to? What if growth could come from within —by deepening relationships, increasing engagement, and capturing more of the financial lives of the members you already serve? The truth is: it can. But it requires a shift in strategy. Rethinking What “Growth” Really Means Most institutions define growth as adding more members. But for single-sponsor credit unions, especially those serving first responders, a more powerful definition is: Growth = more value per member Many members only use one or two products—often a checking account and maybe an auto loan. Meanwhile, larger banks capture mortgages, credit cards, and investments. The opportunity isn’t just new members. It’s: More products per member Higher balances per relationship Greater share of wallet Your Biggest Advantage: The First Responder Life...

When Vendors Price for Giants

 Grant Sheehan CCUE | CEO Opinion: When Vendors Price for Giants, They Shrink the Future of Small Credit Unions ! There’s a quiet squeeze happening in the credit union industry, and it’s not coming from regulators or competition from big banks. It’s coming from the very vendors that claim to support the ecosystem. For small credit unions, the problem is increasingly simple and factual: the tools required to compete with digital banking platforms, fraud systems, compliance software, analytics, and payments infrastructure are priced for institutions ten or even 100 times their size. The result is a market where access to essential services is determined not by mission or member need, but by asset size. This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s structurally threatening. Vendors often defend their pricing models as a reflection of complexity or scale. Larger credit unions have more users, more transactions, more integrations, so they pay more, and that seems fair on the surface. But t...

Fed still holds off on rate increase | 2015-07-30 | CUNA News

  WASHINGTON (7/30/15)--Citing “moderate” economic expansion, the Federal Open Market Committee continues to do “a balancing act,” said CUNA Senior Economist Perc Pineda. The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy-making body completed its meeting Wednesday without edging up the federal funds interest rate. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said the committee will opt for an interest-rate increase sometime this fall. The July meeting, however, was not the time. “The Federal Reserve continues to do a balancing act: the U.S. economy is not in a recession and definitely not overheating,” Pineda told News Now . “Changes in monetary policy after all are meant to influence an underperforming or an overheating economy.” Household spending growth has been moderate, and housing has shown additional improvement, the committee said. Labor conditions continue to improve with declining unemployment and solid job gains. Inflation is anticipated to remain near its recent low level in the near term,...

Credit Union Lending Picks Up in Most Areas

Credit unions were increasing their portfolios in most areas in June, except business lending and new car loans, where portfolios fell for the 24th month in a row after seasonal adjustments, according to a CUNA Mutual Group report released Tuesday. The Madison, Wis., trade group’s Credit Union Trends Report showed new auto loan balances were $141 billion on June 30, falling at a 3.3% seasonally adjusted, annualized rate from May to June, part of the May-through-October peak car-buying season. Credit unions held $252.4 billion in used car loans on June 30, up 1.2% from May without seasonal adjustments. The Trends Report made slight adjustments to CUNA’s Monthly Credit Union Estimates released earlier in the month. In this case, its changes allowed total auto loan balances to show a slight 0.3% un-adjusted May-to-June gain, compared to being flat in the CUNA report. Steve Rick, chief economist for CUNA Mutual Group and the report’s author, said gains were stronger in other areas, includ...

The FedNow Service will launch in 2023 "Are you ready?"

The FedNow Service is a new instant payment service that the Federal Reserve Banks are developing to enable financial institutions of every size, and in every community across the U.S., to provide safe and efficient instant payment services in real-time, around the clock, every day of the year. Through financial institutions participating in the FedNow Service, businesses and individuals will be able to send and receive instant payments conveniently, and recipients will have full access to funds immediately, giving them greater flexibility to manage their money and make time-sensitive payments. Consistent with the Federal Reserve’s historical role of providing payment services alongside private-sector providers, the FedNow Service will provide choice in the market for clearing and settling instant payments as well as promote resiliency through redundancy. Financial institutions and their service providers will be able to use the service as a springboard to provide innovative instant p...

Rick Metsger reminded credit unions the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund may be required to increase loss reserves as the values of taxi medallions decline.

A LEXANDRIA, Va. (Dec. 8, 2017)  – National Credit Union Administration Board Member Rick Metsger today reminded credit unions the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund may be required to increase loss reserves as the values of taxi medallions decline. “Prices for New York taxi medallions at two recent public auctions have been considerably lower,” Metsger said. “That, combined with a continued increase in already high delinquency rates on medallion loans, suggests the Share Insurance Fund’s reserves may have to increase in the very near future.” Metsger spoke today to the Oregon Department of Financial Services CEO roundtable in Salem, Oregon. His remarks covered various issues related to credit union regulation and the Share Insurance Fund.  Metsger said the NCUA issued a Letter to Credit Unions in 2010,   warning of concentration risk , and the agency issued a more specific letter on   taxi medallion lending in 2014​ . “We have known, and warned ...

Facial recognition to secure payments will exceed 1.4 billion globally by 2025

BASINGSTOKE, U.K.– The number of users of software-based facial recognition to secure payments will exceed 1.4 billion globally by 2025, from just 671 million in 2020, according to a new study from Juniper Research. “This rapid growth of 120% demonstrates how widespread facial recognition has become; fueled by its low barriers to entry, a front-facing camera and appropriate software,” Juniper said, noting the research identified the implementation of FaceID by Apple as accelerating the growth of the wider facial recognition market, despite the challenges to facial recognition during the pandemic with face mask use. The research recommends that facial recognition vendors implement robust and rapidly evolving AI based verification checks to ensure the validity of user identity, or risk losing user trust in the authentication method as spoofing attempts increase, Juniper reported. Fingerprint Sensors The new research, Mobile Payment Authentication: Biometrics, Regulation & Market Fore...

Credit unions lending rose at a faster pace in most sectors than the small banks last year, according to data released this week by the FDIC and CUNA Mutual Group.

What credit unions lacked in size they made up for in speed compared with community banks and savings institutions in 2017. Credit unions lending rose at a faster pace in most sectors than the small banks last year, according to data released this week by the FDIC and CUNA Mutual Group. CUNA Mutual’s monthly  trends report  showed credit unions held $984.8 billion in total loans at Dec. 31, up 10.7% from a year earlier and a growth rate more than twice as fast as community banks. Credit union assets rose 6.3% to $1.4 trillion due to a 6.3% increase in deposits, a 3% drop in borrowings and a 7.7% increase in capital. With loan balances growing faster than assets, the loan-to-asset ratio ended 2017 at 70.4%, up from 67.5% a year earlier. The fast loan growth also helped loan delinquency rates fall to 0.79% in December, down from 0.83% a year earlier, according to CUNA Mutual. The FDIC’s Quarterly Banking Profile showed loans at the nation’s 5,670 community banks ...

Don't say NO to your members anymore!

Does the following scenario occur at your credit union? If it does, we have a solution for you! A member comes in into your credit union and wants to know if you will loan them a couple of hundred thousand $$$ to buy a building, or can you loan him some seed money to start a new business or purchase equipment for the company they currently own, and you say,  “the credit union doesn't do those kinds of loans”.  Does this sound familiar? How many times do you and your staff say NO and literally tell a member to  “go down the street or go somewhere else” ?  Well, now, you have another option.   CU First Responders Finance (CUFR) CU First Responders Finance, LLC (CUFR)  is a partnership between the National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions, Inc.   (NCOFCU) , and Biz Lending & Insurance Center, Inc. to provide business lending origination programs to NCOFCU member credit unions. CUFR  will provide you with a turnkey operati...

Americans are using alternative financing arrangements, such as rent-to-own

CUToday PHILADELPHIA–Many Americans are using alternative financing arrangements, such as rent-to-own, that a new report from Pew Charitable Trusts indicates are generally riskier, more costly, and subject to far weaker consumer protections and regulatory oversight than traditional mortgages. Pew Trusts sad the “evidence suggests that a shortage of small mortgages, those for less than $150,000, may be driving some home borrowers (i.e., people who purchase a home with financing) who could qualify for a mortgage into these alternative arrangements. And other factors related to a home’s habitability and the ownership of the land beneath a manufactured home—the modern version of a mobile home—can make certain homes ineligible for mortgage financing altogether.” According to Pew, the evidence of potential consumer harm, little is known about the prevalence of alternative financing in the U.S., primarily because no systematic national data collection exists. Pew said approximate...