By Mike Joplin, CEO, CU Lending Cooperative for
NACUSO Quarterly Review 
How can we attract more millennials?
That’s a question most credit union CEOs are struggling with today. And if you spend more than a couple of minutes Googling, you’ll realize there are many, many answers to this question. They can’t all be right, can they?
What if I told you that’s not even the right question?
Imagine for a moment a master chef who decides to open a food truck. He spends his entire life’s savings on state-of-the-art equipment. He develops a magnificent menu. Then he parks his rolling five-star restaurant in front of his house and waits for customers to show up.
That seems to be the approach most credit unions take with millennials. They launch all the cool new products and services that millennials allegedly want. Then they wonder why their websites aren’t blowing up with activity.
In the meantime, GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) and their disciples have figured out that millennials expect to be engaged on their terms. How else can you explain the proliferation of Apple Stores in upscale malls across the country? More to the point, how else can you explain the crowds of people who fill those Apple Stores on a daily basis.

The concept is to not only grow loans, but cultivate membership as well.
By Roy Urrico
CU Lending Cooperative announces a major lending program. A new San Diego-based CUSO called CU Lending Cooperative aims to provide credit unions with a national presence in major online lending programs, the first of which will be LendingTree. The way the loan production platform works is when someone applies for a personal loan on LendingTree, CULC software grabs the application and qualifies the person. Then in seconds, the software checks to see what member credit union matches and presents an offer. The concept is to not only grow loans, but cultivate membership as well. When it funds, the loan deposits into a share account at that credit union. The new member can access the money by signing up for online banking or waiting for their debit card.