By Lisa Hochgraf
This wordsmith is in Washington, D.C., at the Financial Managers Society's Best Practices in ALM for Credit Unions workshop, which CUES is co-sponsoring. I don't usually get a close look at sample credit union financials, but I've spent a lot of time looking at such numbers today. It's making me question a long-held feeling about finance executives in the credit union world.
Conjure an image of CU CFOs and what do you see? Conservative people in pin-striped suits who organize the bills in their wallets by denomination?
After today's learning, I think you should see risk-takers—and be proud.
Who but risk-takers would be willing to try to predict future market rates and then use complex risk mitigation tools to help their institutions weather most storms—if not all—so those institutions can continue to offer a variety of needed, but complex, hard-to-quantify financial products to members? It's clearly a big challenge to manage all the data, and one I'm grateful some people rise to meet.
To those that do it and do it well, hats off. I have new respect for the "risky" business you undertake every day.
Lisa Hochgraf is marketing/operations editor for CUES' Credit Union Management magazine, edits the weekly CUES Tech Port e-newsletter, and cohosts the Nexus Connection blog.
