MADISON, Wis. – The role of succession planning and leadership development in successful credit union mergers is discussed in the first of two CUNA Councils white papers.

“Converging Executive Teams: The Role of Leadership Development and Succession Planning in Successful Credit Union Mergers” by the CUNA Councils offers a glimpse into credit union mergers, and the various approaches for bringing together a leadership team, depending on the scope and circumstances of the merger. Current merger trends and the reasoning behind those proposed consolidations are addressed, along with the potential impact of a lack of succession planning.

The paper concludes with three credit union merger case studies detailing how a chief executive was selected, an executive team was brought together, and a leadership development program was created to ensure the merger strengthened the continuing organization and its ties to members.

The second new white paper examines strategies for customizing collections to fit a credit union’s membership and market. “Collections: Not a Cookie-Cutter Operation” by the CUNA Lending Council examines program structure, industry trends, and working with collections agencies. It also looks at collections philosophies of helping members versus managing numbers.

Dana Rawlings, lending council executive committee member and senior vice president and chief operations office for Smart Financial CU in Houston, believes that collections objective should echo credit unions’ “People Helping People” philosophy. “So many credit unions focus on how many calls you make, and on keeping [delinquency and charge-off rates] down,” Rawlings said in the paper. “But if you help members, the numbers will take care of themselves. And those members will send others to your credit union.”

CUNA Council members are entitled to complimentary copies of these white papers; non-members may purchase the white papers for a price of $50 per copy. The papers are available online at www.cunacouncils.org; select the
Cross-Council White Papers link located in the Tools and Resources drop-down menu. Choose the “Cross Council” tab for the mergers paper or the “Lending” tab for the collections paper. From there, non-members should follow the non-member link to order.