By Edward Speed

There’s a quietly profound moment in the film City Slickers when the old cowboy, Curly, lifts a leathery index finger and tells Mitch, “Do you know what the secret of life is? One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean [expletive].”

Søren Kierkegaard said the same more piously: “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”

This is where credit unions are failing today.  It is also the root cause of why many credit unions are so dependent on fees.  

The Federal Credit Union Act of 1934 gave us a mission so clear it should be carved above every credit union door: “provide credit for provident purposes to people of modest means.” Not multiple missions. Just one: make loans.

A Test of Will

Failing to stay loaned out isn’t a tech, market, or demographic issue. It’s a test of will. Consumer lending isn’t complex—but it is hard. It takes grit to do tedious, unglamorous work, every day.

Lending demands humble, relentless effort and full-team alignment. Every employee must understand and take pride in their role in the lending process, especially employees who are not member-facing. It’s not about gimmicks. It’s about discipline and moral clarity. Yet too many CEOs hide behind excuses.   What they really mean is: it’s hard.

The most dangerous distraction is treating lending challenges like a systems issue—believing a new origination platform, rebrand, or consultant will fix things. The real need is operational clarity and singular will.

Not Mission-Driven

Some credit unions flee to commercial lending. It’s easier to make one $5 million motel loan than 300 used car loans. But that’s not mission-driven. 

What’s hard—and holy—is building a place where consumer lending is the heartbeat: auto loans, home mortgages, signature loans, small-dollar relief loans. 

That kind of work doesn’t get you on the speaker circuit or win you civic awards. It does build integrity, relevance, and real impact. Not for press releases. For people.

Show Me the Org Chart, I’ll Show You the Truth

When I see a credit union org chart where the chief lending officer reports to anyone other than the CEO, I already know there’s a serious problem.  Bureaucracy has come between mission and member. It says the CEO doesn’t want to get her hands dirty—or wants plausible deniability when results lag. If lending is to be the mission, the CLO must report directly to the CEO—no buffers. Anything less is institutional cowardice. More than three layers between the CEO and the borrower is a danger sign.

Where lending doesn’t report to the CEO, mission has left the building.

I know success is possible because I have lived it.

We Did It. And Can Do It Again

I became the CEO in early 2003.  Within three years we went from 40% loaned out to an over 100% loan-to-share ratio and we stayed at 100% or more until I retired in 2012, even through the Great Recession of 2008-2012.  During my time in the CEO chair, our team grew the loan portfolio from $400 million to right at $2 billion. 

I certainly didn’t do it alone.

Rhonda Pavlicek, our then-CFO, is a strategic ALM and liquidity genius. Her leadership ensured we could aggressively lend both safely and profitably. An inspiring, though-minded and direct leader/mentor, she knew when to push and when to pull back. Today, Rhonda is now CFO/EVP at University Federal in Austin—$4 billion in assets, 95% loaned out.

Luke Billeri turned our branches into lending engines. Luke did so through coaching and inspiring all he encountered. Most of our loans were made face-to-face. Luke is now CEO of Members Choice CU in Houston—$700 million in assets, 94% loaned out.

Max Villaronga, a former Marine Captain and Home Depot manager, combined the fierce competitiveness of a Marine combat officer with retail discipline and personal courage. Max is now CEO at RAIZ FCU in El Paso—over $1 billion in assets, 95% loaned out.

Steph Sherrodd, our EVP/COO, saw the whole picture. She aligned the organization around one goal. Today, she’s CEO of Sunward FCU in New Mexico—over $4 billion in assets. In the three years since Steph became CEO in January, 2022, annual loan growth has been 14%, 18%, and 19%.  Steph will have them 100% loaned out by year end. 

Great Vendors Required

Emily Hollis, founder and CEO of ALM First, was our not-so-secret weapon. Thanks to her guidance, our ALM-related CAMEL scores were consistently a “1.” We never launched a product or campaign without Emily modeling it first.

Operational partners like Dave Grote of Allied Solutions and the folks at CUNA Mutual helped us build a strong back-office to originate, process, and collect loans. They trained our people on-site and delivered results.

But let’s be clear: no vendor can replace the will to lend. You can outsource services, but not purpose.

It’s Exhausting, But…

Staying loaned out is exhausting. At one point we had to originate more than $30 million in consumer loans monthly just to match portfolio runoff.

When I hear a credit union whine “we can’t get loaned out,” I don’t hear a technical problem—I hear a failure of will.

Another common excuse is, “NCUA won’t allow it.” Nonsense. The NCUA and NCUSIF need and want credit unions to grow. If capital, NEV, and liquidity are sound, and you can explain your strategy, processes and guardrails, regulators will not interfere.

We also had a courageous board. They expected lending results—not headlines, not awards.  In fact, awards and recognitions would more often met with raised skeptical eyebrows than praise. 

It’s Not Tech. It’s Focus

Credit unions aren’t losing to fintech or regulation. They’re losing to distractions caused by leaders who no longer believe deeply enough in lending to organize everything around it. Some chase name changes or mergers to mask failure.

Kierkegaard warned that a divided will is the enemy of integrity. A credit union that no longer wills the one thing—lending to people of modest means—becomes just another financial provider with a sentimental origin story.

The credit union movement won’t die with a bang. But it could fade with a shrug.

Those who remembered their one thing—and did the hard, humble, unglamorous work of consumer lending—will have built something worth passing on.

If you’re not loaned out, then “credit union” is just your tax status, not your mission.

Edward Speed is the retired CEO of a multi-billion-dollar Texas credit union, who holds a master’s degree in theology.   These days he spends his time serving food, washing dishes and sweeping floors at the San Antonio Catholic Worker House helping homeless senior citizens. Email: [email protected]