CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 327 CUSO MSS on Keeping Smaller CUs Independent

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What magic pill can help keep hundreds, indeed thousands of credit unions from vanishing over the next decade?

Vim Anand, CEO of Member Support Services, says his CUSO can create operational efficiency and cost savings through economies of scale and standardization.  The focus is on backoffice technologies and, says Anand, MSS’s tools deliver 20+ % cost savings.

But don’t take his word for all of this. Also on the show is John Bissell, CEO of $1.6 billion Greylock Federal Credit Union in Pittsfield MA. Bissell is a new MSS member-owner and he explains that the credit union took this step because he sees this as a way to stay independent and local and both of those are crucial to Bissell who believes they are a big part of the credit union special sauce.

Greylock, by the way, is the biggest credit union in MSS - the two other member owners are >$400 million apiece - and MSS is actively seeking new member owners because Anand’s goal is $8 to $10 billion in total assets.

And the payoff, says Anand, will be helping more credit unions stay independent.

As for why Bissell is set on keeping Greylock independent understand that he grew up in a Greylock family. His dad logged 30 years at GE which was the SEG that powered the birth of the credit union.

Listen to the show to hear Bissell’s story of how an Amherst College grad with an English degree migrated to Seattle but after 10 years he felt the call to return to western Mass, as locals call the region.

Do you want more credit unions to stay independent? Listen up.

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