First-responder Credit Union Newsroom

Firefighters First Credit Union  celebrated a very special work anniversary for our President/CEO, Dixie Abramian! 30 years ago, Dixie started with Firefighters First Credit Union as a Teller. Throughout the years, she worked in several different departments including Collections, Training, and Marketing...just to name a few! Please join us in celebrating and thanking Dixie for 30 years of dedication and providing legendary service to Firefighters First and our amazing members!

 WASHINGTON—Economic growth was moderate during April, according to the latest Beige Book from the Federal Reserve, but three of the Fed’s district banks expressed concerns about an upcoming recession. The Beige Book found retailers reported some softening as consumers faced higher prices, while residential real estate sources reported weakness as buyers faced high prices and rising interest rates. In addition, employers cited labor market difficulties as their greatest challenge, followed by supply chain disruptions. “The latest Beige Book reflects softening conditions, but consumers continue to buoy the economy for the time being,” said NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long. Additional Findings Long noted other ins...

If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that the old ways of lending will hold you back. We consistently hear deep frustration from banks and credit unions about drowning in paperwork, a lack of visibility, inconsistent processes, and the problems associated with disparate systems cobbled together to push loan applications through their pipeline. Here are four reasons why community and regional financial institutions may be losing ground in the market today. Reason #1: The lending process, (especially in the commercial market) has historically been inefficient and extremely siloed from both a personnel and technology standpoint. Reason #2: Manual processes, non-connected systems, and the need for multiple teams (such as lenders, credit analysts, and loan operations) create challenges for borrowers and financial institutions. Reason #3: Often, lenders must handle both commercial and consumer lending requests using multiple systems and different proces...

CUNA Chief Economist Mike Schenk said Tuesday that the odds are against a recession by the end of 2023. He said the chances of a recession were 30% to 40% based on his confidence in the continuing strength in consumer demand and a decent chance the Fed can navigate a “safe landing” by raising rates enough to cool inflation, but not enough to bump the economy into a downturn. “There is considerable risk to the downside here,” he said. “The historical record of Fed attempts to tame inflation without causing a recession is not reassuring.” This also assumes the COVID-19 pandemic will morph into an endemic, with a diminished impact on economic activity, and that the war in Ukraine will not spread beyond Ukraine’s borders. Schenk provided more detail in an “Economic Update” video he recorded May 20 . The video included two changes to CUNA’s April 12 forecast for the first quarter. First, the video showed the gross domestic product in the first quarter falling 1.4% from a y...

 WASHINGTON—The rate of credit union membership growth during 2021 was slightly better than that of 2020, while lending grew at its fastest pace in 17 years, according to Callahan & Associates. The company shared the insights on the addition of more than 4.8-million new members (3.8% growth) last year  and other data points during a recent quarterly Trendwatch webinar. Among the other key highlights from the Callahan & Associates’ analysis: Annual Loans Growing At Fastest Rate In 17 Years For the first time since 2019, the rate at which annual loans have grown has outpaced the growth of shares, the company said. “Loan growth rose to 11.7%, up over 7% from last year’s growth. The loan portfolio is currently growing at the fastest annual rate since 2005,” Callahan’s reported. “Share growth slowed to 9.3%, down from the extraordinary 23.1% growth rate seen in the prior year.” Credit unions are also keeping more loans on their balance sheet, acc...

Banking's future is shaping up to be dramatically different — in as few as three years. According to a survey of financial institution leaders worldwide, customer experience improvements, competitive changes, and an accelerated flight to digital channels, along with several surprising additional factors, will massively transform the industry. By Jim Marous , Co-Publisher of The Financial Brand , CEO  The pace of change in banking is already startling. Financial institutions are working overtime to leverage digital transformation for increased efficiencies, improved experiences and revised business models. But what do banking leaders from around the world believe will happen by 2025 … only three short years from now? To answer questions around the speed of digital banking transformation, the Digital Banking Report asked over 400 financial institution executives to provide their projections as to what will happen in next three years. Our global research included not onl...

  By Mike Moebs Who was the best quarterback of the economy?  Since 1914 there have been 15 Federal Reserve chairs. The most fundamental way to measure the performance of the Fed quarterbacks in the past 108 years is to gauge if money supply advanced in line with the normal rate of monetary growth.  In 1946 Congress gave the Federal Reserve the dual mandate to control inflation and maximize employment to promote economic stability. However, this is like rating a teacher based on the number of A’s awarded and how many students attended class every day. Judging a teacher by these quotas is not a good measure of their performance or impact on their students’ learning. What do you think of a teacher who gives out all A’s? Moebs $ervi...

  New Orleans Firemen’s Federal Credit Union is proud to announce Chief Executive Officer Judy DeLucca has been selected by Inclusiv as an Annie Vamper Award recipient. Inclusiv's mission is to help low- and moderate-income people and communities achieve financial independence through credit unions. The award recognizes individuals who are making extraordinary contributions to the community development credit union (CDCU) movement and is named for Annie Vamper, who dedicated her life to serving low- and moderate-income people through credit unions. Inclusiv is delighted to once again honor the legacy of Annie Vamper through these three incredible community development credit union trailblazers. “We are very proud of Judy and her team for all the work they do for our communities,” stated Board Chairperson Joseph Jurisich. “Judy is an excellent example of the ‘people helping people’ spirit our credit union was built upon. We appreciate her invaluable leadership and gui...

The NCUA has told credit unions they can use the technology behind cryptocurrency as long as they follow NCUA principles to ensure compliance with existing regulations and don’t create undue risk. NCUA Chairman Todd Harper’s four-page letter sent Thursday to federally insured credit unions said the NCUA does not prohibit credit unions from employing distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is used to support cryptocurrencies, “if it is deployed for permissible activities and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including applicable state laws or state supervisory authority requirements.” “As with the development of any new product or service when deploying a platform, product or service using DLT as part of the underlying technology, credit unions should find an appropriate balance between the opportunities and the risks,” Harper wrote. “This letter also signals to the broader financial and technology communities that credit unions are a market to ...

 ARLINGTON, Va.—New home sales fell 16.6% in April to 591,000 annualized units, while March saw a downward revision of 54,000 units. The sales slowdown comes even as rates have declined nationally for a second straight week. Curt Long, NAFCU Compared to last year, April sales were 26.9% lower, reported NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long. “Rising rates and high prices are putting the brakes on a market that had significant momentum just a few months ago,” said Long. “While the total number of homes for sale grew by 8.3% in April to 444,000, only 38,000 of those homes are complete. The supply chain and la...