Top CFO Concerns for the Second Half
July 7, 2015 10:37 AM
From the interest rate environment to managing regulatory changes, here's whats top of mind for chief financial officers going into the second half of the year.
Katie Armstrong, VP-finance, Boston Firefighters CU, Boston
"The biggest issue will be monitoring is the interest rate environment and how best to navigate the changes that will come from the Fed. We do a quarterly ALM analysis. We have mortgages to veterans that we are keeping on our books, so we are figuring out how to hedge those.
Another issue is rapid changes to technology, such as Apple Pay and other mobile payment platforms. Technology always requires you to keep up."
Mike Moore, CFO, U.S. Eagle FCU, Albuquerque, N.M.
"For me it is growth. We need to grow the loan portfolio while balancing liquidity. We also have to keep our eyes on what we do as CFOs while not being distracted by things that are not really part of the business. I would rather do two or three things really well than trying to do a lot of things and not doing them to our standards."
Galen Wilhoit, CFO, River Region CU, Jefferson City, Mo.
"We need to continue to manage regulatory and account changes, CECL [current expected credit loss] being the biggest. That will bring a whole new way of calculating loan loss allowances. We have to start tracking new data, and it probably will impact our capital in a significant way if it is implemented as expected. We know the basics of what the new rule will bring, but we do not yet know all the details."
Michal Parker, CFO, Secured Advantage FCU, Simpsonville, S.C.
"All of the new regulations coming out is a continuing challenge. There will be the new mortgage disclosures in August and EMV coming in October. The switch to chip cards is going to cost a lot of money with reissuance and mailing. The changes to mortgage lending will likely mean a learning curve for our people, which means there will be a cost to get them properly trained."
Janelle Kaczmarck, CFO, AmeriChoice FCU, Mechanicsburg, Pa.
"Loan growth and membership growth are the two most important issues. We are doing a promotion to boost auto loans, but the lower rate we are using to attract more loans has an effect on our net interest margin. We need members to bring in loans so our advertising and marketing dollars are a major expense."
Bryanna Tapley, VP-operations, Flint Area School Employees CU, Flint, Mich.
"We need to continue to get growth in our credit unions. Some credit unions have done a great job in figuring out ways of penetrating their existing memberships. At our credit union we have generated loan demand by learning how to examine member accounts. Now we have exhausted that opportunity, so we need to get new members to come in."
