By Ron Araujo, Vice President, Investment Strategies & Education, WesCorp
In September 2006 at WesCorp’s Credit Union Outlook conference in Las Vegas, more than 300 of the nation’s credit union leaders gathered on the last day of this popular three-day economic forum to hear WesCorp announce the first of its annual Best Practices honors entitled the InsideRISK Awards. Following is a case study of Kern FCU, one of the years winners.

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By Debra Sondak

As Baby Boomers age, so do their offspring. The target customer for financial services institutions and credit card companies is someone between the ages of 15 and 24 – the teenager.

America is in a new era of conspicuous consumption; the enormous teenage population is chock-full-of cash and has quite the propensity towards spending. Think about how many times you have read recently about the lack of financial education among America’s youth and the alarming negative savings rate. If their parents aren’t financially savvy, how can we expect young people to know what to do with a savings account, a checking account, or a credit card?

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By Seena Faqiri

As an industry, credit unions account for just 2.9 percent of the U.S. credit card market. At the same time, economies of scale give the goliaths of the massive industry an edge for running a more efficient program, leaving credit unions and other small credit card retailers the challenge of attempting to grow. Consequently, many credit unions sold their credit card portfolios. But now a small number of credit unions that left the industry to concentrate on other areas are re-entering the market. For example, after a five-year hiatus, Eastern Financial Credit Union was ready to re-focus on credit cards to better serve its members.

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