By Chaz Rzewnicki
Greetings, Credit Union Industry!
Over the last couple years, I’ve seen a ton of very “one-sided takes” on just about all things credit unions. Individual bias, with no care for reality beyond an individual’s own truth, seems to be the name of the game. Blanket “big is bad and small is good” nonsense is fueled by one-sided, often distorted nonsense that only perpetuates distorted narratives!
One of the things that critics like to pounce on is the subject of naming rights. Bad, bad, bad, some folks say. Those individuals just cannot comprehend how a not-for-profit financial cooperative could possibly spend a portion of our marketing/development budget on naming rights (and BTW, shame on us all for having marketing budgets, too).
Some in the industry actually appear to believe naming rights for credit unions should be forbidden – they just don’t belong in the CU world. Those same individuals that talk about the love for credit unions and how they want to “protect it” want to take every major venue, field, stadium, arena–“use your imagination to keep the list going”–and plaster a nice big bank or for-profit enterprise name all over it. One of those organizations that will take our members money and send it to a land far away because naming rights for any CU is bad—period.
Not a Horrible Thing
As Vibe Credit Union just completed a major naming rights agreement, I thought I would share some thoughts on why naming rights aren’t a horrible thing and allow credit unions to significantly impact their mission.
- Size. For some ridiculous reason, lots of folks out there seem to think size is a bad thing. In some minds, cooperatives are supposed to be small, non-complex institutions. I do admit, not all CUs use their assets appropriately – there will always be some bad actors in every industry, But, in the end, most of our industry does do some pretty incredible things for our members and communities. Size, for many of us like Vibe, who truly try to use that size to give back more and more and more, is not such a bad thing.
- Income. Growth of income is not a bad thing either. Again, if used appropriately, more revenue coming in allows us to send more back out to our communities and our members. The key here = GIVE IT BACK!!!!! If your organization wears ROA as a badge of honor, then maybe you don’t need to be bigger. But, if you’re a credit union like Vibe, which consistently strives to give back more and more and more, year over year over year, then more income resources ultimately leads to more good we can do. Can you help me understand why that is often demonized again?
Increased Benefits
For Vibe, over the last three years and in our plan for 2026 (and beyond) is this continued trend. Our increased profits go directly back to our members. Increased profit “in” = increased member benefit “out.” The goal is not higher ROA, because my board and I are firm believers that profits should go back to those whom they really belong, our incredible members.
Increased income has allowed us to:
- Fee Reductions. We eliminated NSF fees in 2024 and have budgeted major fee reductions to our courtesy pay program for 2026. This has and will continue to put millions of dollars each year directly back into the pockets of our members where it belongs. As our revenue increases so will our fee reductions.
Note to Critics: Reallocating some of our marketing budget (or the entire darn budget for that matter!) to this area will not drive the meaningful benefit we would like to offer our members.
- Cost-of-Funds. This is one of those funny areas that should be worn as a badge of honor. One of the primary ways we have the ability to “give” back to our members is through dividends we pay. At Vibe, increased revenue has allowed us to increase what we give back to our members in the form of “interest” in big, big ways. And our highest rates are not reserved for the rich people – we offer our highest rates to our bottom “high yield savings” account tiers.
Note to Critics: Reallocating some of our marketing budget (or the entire darn budget for that matter!) to this area will not drive the meaningful benefit we would like to offer our members.
- Expanded Product/Technology. In 2025 and beyond we can’t sit around and debate if we can afford to offer things like a competitive checking account, technology to better money movement or a new website to replace an obsolete one. Relevancy is real! The opportunity cost of not investing into critical components of your business risks leaving you really irrelevant and wondering how you got there or pointing fingers.
Note to Critics: Reallocating some of our marketing budget (or the entire darn budget for that matter!) to this area will not drive the meaningful benefit we would like to offer our members.
- Community Impact. In 2025, our charitable giving (which grows with our size) was approx. $650,000 and our team members committed over 8,000 (21,000+ hours since 2023) “boots on the ground” community impact hours to non-profits tied to housing insecurity, food insecurity and/or financial literacy. Increased resources will directly result in our ability to expand these efforts.
A Tip for an Awesome Community Impact Program: Organizations need more than your donations to survive. If your credit union doesn’t have boots on the ground making your community a better place, it’s time to step up!
Extreme Mission-Mindedness
Naming rights, like that of the Vibe Credit Union Showplace, will lead to an extremely mission minded, not-for-profit financial cooperative having more resources to give back to our members and invest in the communities that allow us to exist. I know the CEOs of many credit unions that have entered into naming rights agreements with the same intentions. We are not on a never-ending quest for growth, but are cognizant that if we don’t have growth, we will never be able to satisfy our never-ending quest to help people on a larger and greater scale!
Indeed, some credit unions have focused on profit over the entire reason organizations like us were created. But those credit unions, big or small, are not the majority. Our industry is stronger together than we are divided, although it is probably time for every credit union leader out there to “reground yourself” in the very reasons our tax-exempt organizations were created and then double down on solving those issues which still exist today.
Chaz Rzewnicki is president/CEO Vibe Credit Union in Novi, Mich.
