Josh DeTar: [00:01:00] Welcome to another episode of the Digital Banking Podcast. My guest today is Troy Stang, the president and c e o of the Go West Credit Union Association, representing credit unions in the six states comprised of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming. Uh, a few fun facts about Troy. So, Troy grew up in a tiny rural town in central Minnesota.
This is a small but important detail that shaped a lot of what makes Troy well, Troy. [00:02:00] It instilled in him a few things, a fearless attitude toward a hard work ethic, an unrelenting curiosity, and a passion for the cooperative community model. So, how does a farm kid from a town of 172 people end up leading the credit union?
Evangelism. For the six state go West Credit Union Association. Trust me, you have to hear the story to believe it. But the cliff notes are his first job while going to college outside of the farm was at a small Catholic credit union that he later found out was actually started by his grandfather. Troy spends an exorbitant amount of time on planes, in cars and on trains traveling these western states of the US meeting with the credit unions he loves, but he calls out, he couldn't have asked for a better part of the country to work as an avid outdoorsman.
The six states of Go West afford him the opportunity to travel and experience the rich beauty and diversity. And when we say diversity, it's not just the diversity of the topography, [00:03:00] but the people as well. That is just so prevalent in these states. One of the things that I love so much about Troy is even with how busy and active he is, when you have Troy's engagement, you have all 110% of him, including the him, that had a chance to play guitar with Johnny Cash on stage while playing in a cover band.
So what does that mean for today's episode? It means you're gonna get a ton of energy, a ton of insight, and you are undoubtedly gonna leave with an invigorated passion for the community financial institution industry. Troy, thanks for joining me today, sir.
Troy Stang: Hey. Thanks Josh. Thanks for reaching out. Good to see you and uh, good to chat this morning.
Josh DeTar: Absolutely. Well, hey, look, we cannot start this podcast with the story of this credit union that you ended up working with that really spurned this entire passion. You know, for, those of you that are tuning into this episode. Troy started telling me a little bit of this story as we were crafting [00:04:00] his introduction.
And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. You gotta pump the brakes. Like, this story is just too incredible. We cannot condense this down. You gotta actually tell this story on the episode. So I think this is where we gotta start. My good friend. tell me a little bit about this little Catholic Credit Union and just kind of the origin of how it became and, and its evolution into, what and who they are today.
Troy Stang: Well, I, I, while it was super, super present in our community, I sort of bumped into the inside of the credit union by accident. My life's dream was to buy, my dad's farm. It's a fifth generation dairy farm in central Minnesota, but I had three younger siblings and, and my parents wisely guided me.
this farm would not feed the next generation or two generations. so go off and get an education and, and get a job. And, and so I went to a community college and started working, at the local credit union. little did I know, after the CEO of that credit union sent me in the back room to put the history of the credit union together.
that credit union was founded by my [00:05:00] grandfather and his brothers and, and a whole bunch of other Catholic parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church. Grandpa's stories such that he got declined at a local bank, for a loan for a tractor. The, the back in the 1930s, of course, great depression.
Grandpa's crop was in the field. it was, and it had to come out. The harvest was going to happen. of course, commodity prices were depressed. grandpa couldn't prove cash flow on the, on the farm operations, but he wasn't going anywhere. He was already a third generation stakeholder in the community and, and very frustrated, uh, with the actions of the bank.
he got his eight brothers and the parishioners together after church on Sunday and said, we can do better. We can provide for ourselves, we can. There's this concept of a cooperative financial institution. and so the parishioners of that church, uh, ultimately formed a credit union and you gotta be a member of the Catholic church, back in the day in order to be a member of that credit union.
I'm so dang proud of that institution 'cause they were serving the [00:06:00] parishioners who were all farmers. And that credit union today has evolved into Magnify Financial, which is one of the largest agricultural lending credit unions yet today in our nation.
Josh DeTar: You know, it's, funny you're telling the story. I can only think of two examples. But I think they're good enough ones that we can extrapolate this to, you know, much bigger field here, but apparently great things come from ticking off farmers about tractors, because it bore this credit union, it bore Lamborghini, you know, so I think, I think it's pretty safe to say that, you know, your grandfather's credit unions pretty much, you know, the Lamborghini of, uh, community financial institutions.
Is that fair to say, Troy?
Troy Stang: Well, I mean, if you really peel it back, and you talked a little bit about my dna, growing up, but, um, the, the quest for cooperative financial institutions in our nation, whether it was grandpa's credit union or every other credit union, that we have across our region, across the nation, has a story like that.
A [00:07:00] group of people looking for something that they're not getting, looking for their story to be heard, looking for someone to understand their family's financial wealth and the journey and their dreams and, and. They're not necessarily getting it heard, in other venues. And, and so the beauty of this DNA of credit unions being cooperatively formed, being, being owned and driven by their membership is so dang unique.
And, and you fast forward, Josh to the current environment that we're in when, I don't know a household out there in my neighborhood, your neighborhood who is not having the conversation at their kitchen table today about who are we doing our banking with, who are we doing our financial services with?
It matters. It matters today. It mattered back then. and it mattered throughout the journey of, of our nation and our communities and our, and our families.
Josh DeTar: You know, one point that you made when you were telling me a little bit of this story earlier that I think is really important to touch [00:08:00] on here because I think we're gonna end up talking about it a lot in this episode today is, you know, you made the comment that, you know, your grandfather needed a loan for a tractor and his, you know, revenue was sitting there in the field, but he needed that revenue to be able to prove that he could pay the loan for the tractor, but he needed the tractor to go get the crop to pay the loan.
And, and so it's this chicken and egg vicious cycle and ultimately how the credit union was able to, you know, service him differently than, you know, whatever bank was turning him down for this loan. One of the comments that you made was, because, you know, they started this as, A group of brothers and a group of folks from the church.
And, you know, it's, it's a lot easier to do, lending when you're able to look at, you know, what are the parameters of worthiness of the loan being I go to church every weekend with this person. I see their family, I know their family. I know what kind of humans [00:09:00] they are. I know how much they care about paying back their debts, and I know how much they care about, you know, how they're viewed in our community as a contributor.
And so all of those factors go in that your FICO score doesn't take into account. Right.
Troy Stang: Oh, oh my gosh. Absolutely not. And, and you know, if you look at, the lending that I did in my generation, in my, in my first years working at that credit union, we, we would do open notes, a lump sum loan, six seven digits, to fund fertilizer, fuel, um, the seed, the cultivation, for these farms. and they were written as open notes that weren't due for nine or 11 months, to get you through the growing and the harvest season.
but if you're running an agricultural business, The basic economy of, of supply and demand tells you, you do not dump your grain into the [00:10:00] Chicago grain exchange markets at the peak of the supply. You're better off hedging it. You're better off holding it. You're better off waiting till the middle of winter, to dump or early spring to dump that, that product into the marketplace.
So oftentimes while the farmers thought they could potentially, have a solid market in fall, they would come back in and we would roll the interest. We would add on money, for the creation and building of a storage unit, a grain bin, a silo, a grain shelter storage. So that. They could hedge that market so they could carry it out four more months, at which time a bushel of beans, a bushel of corn, was worth 20, 30% more.
and again, that sort of unique lending, yes it was agriculture, but there's a story behind every member that comes into a credit union. There's a story, that they're navigating in their own life. And that's, that's [00:11:00] the beauty of, of credit unions. And I think, you know, I spent a handful of years there, they moved to Minneapolis St.
Paul and worked for a state employees credit union, who at the time had zero. Branches, highway Credit Union delivered its, its loans and its new accounts through the trunks of state patrol cars and, and orange dump trucks, sanding salt and snowplow trucks that would, you know, head out to the hinterlands of Minnesota, whether Duluth, Hibbing, international Falls Fargo, Moorhead area, to remove snow banks from the roads.
but they would also deliver the loan, check the loan paperwork to employees of the state. And about a week or 10 days later, we would get them back. And so what's so, what's so fascinating, Josh, in today's world, credit unions are doing the same thing and they're doing it with digital forward service.
I mean, those are things that we're doing today that are completely enabled with digital. And, and what's, what's. In the [00:12:00] advocacy business, what's sometimes so frustrating is while we're trying to modernize, the relevancy and the delivery of our services, we get told by our competition or we get told by public policy that we weren't founded for these things.
These are the exact things that we were founded for. We're just modernizing the delivery of them, so that we are at the place, the consumer, the members, their families, their small businesses need today. And, and that is the dna that is what makes this job so fun, to be able to relate, the stories, the work that credit unions are doing, the things that we need from a public policy perspective in a modern day environment.
Josh DeTar: You know, it's really fascinating. I, I recently had a guest on the podcast, Austin Adams. He was the former CIO for JP Morgan Chase, and he made a comment, and I just absolutely loved the way he kind of delivered the comment to, in longer form. And he talked about his beginnings in [00:13:00] banking and, you know, a lot of his story was, it was fairly similar.
he grew up in a small town. His dad was a banker, who was a loan officer. And he said, I remember it as a kid. People would literally come to my home in the middle of the night. Knock on our door to talk to my dad because they needed a loan before tomorrow morning to be able to buy a cow. And his dad would help that community by funding those types of, I need money right now because tomorrow a cow's going up for sale that I gotta buy and it's the right deal and I need a loan to do that.
And you know me well enough to know that this is a sound loan. Right. And so, and he talked about how in his life and his journey going from, you know, that kind of upbringing to arguably one of the largest banks in the world. And, and just watching how, you know, he was able to very clearly articulate that JP Morgan Chase also has a role in this [00:14:00] world.
But he said JP Morgan Chase has also zero touch with the consumer like that. Right. And, and he talked about how he really believes in the community financial institution model for those exact reasons. And that community, financial institutions, also, to your exact point, Troy, need to continue to evolve because people are looking for the products, services, features, service from a credit union, but just in a different way.
Now they're looking for it through digital delivery means. And so just saying, you know, Hey, we're gonna take this credit union and we're gonna do the same digital things that Chase does. That's actually not what we're trying to do. We're trying to do the credit union things. We're trying to be the credit unions, but in this digital world where we have to live amongst digital behemoths, and new entrance into the market.
So I, I, I think that that's a really [00:15:00] important topic for just, you know, talking about how as credit unions start to evolve. It's an evolution of just who we are, but we're not changing the foundation, the fundamentals of who we are in those roots.
Troy Stang: You know, as you're, as you're saying that, Josh, I'm thinking about every industry that evolves and, and my, my immediate family's no longer involved in the farm. A cousin bought the farm, and farms, I think they've bought multiple of the family farms, in that local community and, and I think have 5,000, dairy cows, 10,000 acres.
And, and I think about, The relation of their equipment that they're using today to what grandpa did. the singular tractor, my cousin has these self-driving machinery combines harvest equipment that is all digitally enabled, wifi-enabled, it's measuring the moisture, it's measuring the per per acre bushel.
it's measuring and, and understanding what the [00:16:00] topography is to adjust the cutting, of the crop. every industry has evolved to maintain its relevancy and, and we owe it to our members and, and frankly, in our work as an association. Advocacy's job number one. It's our job to translate the business of credit unions, to an understandable format to public policy officials.
It's our job as an industry to ensure we're evolving our, our cooperative financial institutions, but it's also public policies, responsibility to make sure we've got the tools and the operating environment from a public policy, statutes and rules that'll allow us to evolve and be relevant, as well in a safe and sound manner.
And it is no secret. We are in a, in an environment, post great recession post. Global pandemic, into, a cycle where we're seeing a lot of changes in financial services. And as I mentioned, households, individuals, small businesses are [00:17:00] asking where are they doing their business with financially, and credit unions and the relevancy and, the closeness and the understanding credit unions have to those marketplaces and the needs.
You talked about the diversity of the six states that go west serves. We've got credit unions who are, are, are ranching, credit unions. We have a lot of credit unions who are teachers, old education originally, which they have a beautiful story. But every one of those cooperatives understand their segment, their market in such a unique way, and the human element in it.
and while we can say our society has evolved and it is, and it has and it will continue, the common element is the humanity. The people. And that's not gonna go anywhere. People want to be understood. They want to be heard, they want to be seen. their needs, uh, need to be understood. and that's the beauty of the cooperative model of credit unions.
Josh DeTar: Well, and that kind of leads to one of the other things that you were telling me a little bit about the evolution of Grandpa's credit union. [00:18:00] Right? It's no longer called what it once was. and it no longer. Serves the very specific niche seg that it once did. So talk me through the evolution of that credit union and kind of, you know, the story you were telling me a little bit about, you know, some of the decisions the board had to make about how do we look at, you know, expanding our field of membership and ultimately how it led to doing the exact same thing it originally set out to do, but for a totally different group of people.
But ultimately it's just to your exact point, right?
Troy Stang: Well
Josh DeTar: humans.
Troy Stang: to under, to understand that story, you need to understand the, the region that those communities, and for any of your listeners who are Garris and Keeler, fans have heard the Lake Wobegon trails, that's the area of Minnesota I'm talking about. So primarily back in the day, it was Norwegian, German settlers, who had some sort of agricultural, background from Europe when they came here.
And so those communities settled, in areas and they pulled themselves. So it was [00:19:00] primarily, German Catholic communities. and everywhere along the county road, you would find another town, 7, 9, 11 miles apart from each other. Another hundred, a hundred and some people in every town, included a Catholic church and included implement dealership.
And usually in those basements of those Catholic churches, there was a credit union. so if fast forward, what you're referencing is over the years in generation after generation, Those communities evolved with new settlers, new community being built. And they weren't all Norwegian Catholics, German Catholics anymore.
and so the purity of, you know, a a a single group of of cooperatively owned members suddenly realize if we're gonna serve our neighbors, that means it's gonna be Lutherans, and it's gonna be Catholics. And, and so thinking about how the community evolved is exactly how the credit union evolved.
They, they debated for quite some time, should we, should [00:20:00] we no longer have this just exclusively for Catholics. And I'm so proud of those generations of credit union leaders, they debated it, but they got to a place of, of saying these human beings, Need services as well. Fast forward to today, Minnesota is, is one of the, the fastest growing states with populations coming in from all around the world.
Somalian, Hmong immigrants, Mexican, first generation Mexican Americans, and, and, what a beautiful melting pot today that, that formerly known as St. Mary's Catholic Credit Union as Magnify Financial. And they're doing a beautiful job, understanding, the diversity of those communities and the needs of the people, which are different than what was probably needed from just the Catholic parishioners back in the day.
but fast forward, Josh, again to some of the work that we do as go west, credit Union Association, we have. Our job is to help translate the what and the why of the public [00:21:00] policy parameters. These, these are the why's. We have gone in and evolved our fields of membership because these communities have evolved.
We're, we're actively in conversations with Congress right now saying, listen, there's fewer and fewer choices of local financial services for the consumer. and this concept of limiting fields of membership is not good for these fast growing communities, these communities that are quickly becoming very diverse.
When you've got the assets and, and the capability of delivery of financial services in a cooperative, the consumer doesn't understand why they can't be a member. And so blowing, blowing, open, some of those very antiquated authorities makes sense for a prosperous main street today.
Josh DeTar: I've referenced this a few times, but, when I had Ron Chevlin on the podcast, you know, he talked a lot about how [00:22:00] the, the geography that makes up the demographic of a credit union is no longer a geography. It's, it's no longer a, a community by, it's this x square miles. It's, you know, this town, it, it, it's no longer location based.
and you know, it was actually really funny as you were just talking about this, you know, I was thinking in my head, In hindsight, I don't know, maybe I would've named this podcast something different. you know, the digital banking podcast, just because we, we've covered so many different ranges of topics, but you know, as you were talking, that's what I mean.
I was laughing in my head going, no, you know what? I think we kind of spot on. Nailed it. Because, um, here I have Troy Stang, president and CEO of Go West Credit Union Association. How the heck, Josh, are you gonna tie this to digital banking and make it make sense for having this guy on the podcast? And what, in 10 minutes you've beautifully articulated why?
Because credit unions have evolved, right? [00:23:00] And we're trying to accomplish the same thing. And what is the same thing? We're trying to use a cooperative model. To help people feel heard, feel seen, and be provided for, to give them the opportunities at having a successful quote unquote American dream life.
Right? So we're trying to accomplish that, but it's changing. The landscape is changing. It is no longer, uh, you know, a state patrolman driving around in his car, through the snow to deliver a loan check. It's delivering that digitally. But how do we take that same ideas, the, the same ideology more rather, and apply that to the credit union model of today?
Right. And I think that's what's really exciting about this, evolution that our industry is going through that you kind of just touched on.
Troy Stang: I was so excited. I was, I mentioned to you, I was over in Colorado yesterday and on my, flight home last night, I was, catching up on some of my, uh, study and, [00:24:00] and reading material and, and seeing, you know, cornerstone advisors and, and some of, the other, great business partners that serve the financial services space and, and credit unions.
Specifically really analyzing what investments credit unions are making in digital. and this last year was record. It doubled, in the last 12 months. And, and that's music to my ears, because that means, uh, we are very quickly evolving, as we need to, to meet the members where their needs are.
But again, go west, we spend a lot of our time in advocacy. And what is so frustrating, Josh, this conversation that we have with public policy, whether at the state, level or in Washington DC when, okay, we talked enough about my background. It was just the dna, it is the credit union is where you went as a farmer or as a state employee, as a state patrol officer, as a department of transportation worker, you just knew if you had access to capital or financial service need, you went to your credit union.
but when, when we're in the [00:25:00] halls in Congress and we still have to articulate. Who we are, what we are, and the very basics. And if anybody knows, me or has witnessed, any of my discussions, I always reground us in, in a filter, talking about ourselves through a three letter, acronym, s v i.
We've got to start every conversation reminding our members and public policy that it is our structure that makes us so different. When you are a not-for-profit, cooperatively owned and driven cooperative financial institution, your first line of accountability. Is to the members and the communities that you are serving.
It is not to Wall Street investors. It is, it is to the needs of the membership. And, and when that DNA and that structure is understood, um, then and only then does public policy start to understand why we are so [00:26:00] passionately focused on making this cooperative structure be able to produce real tangible value to its members.
where we, we focus on making sure we've got the right products, the right services, the right delivery channels, the right digital evolution at the right time, is so that the credit union, the cooperative remains relevant to their members and, and. What is so frustrating sometimes, is there are our opponents who say we should not be involved in those modern day things.
We shouldn't have those authorities. I mean, there was a time and a day where even in public policy, we weren't allowed to have what was first called shared draft accounts or checking accounts. Can you imagine, not providing people access, um, to their deposit accounts, for the transactions they needed day in and day out.
I remember early in my career when we were lobbying, as an individual and a group [00:27:00] of Minnesota credit unions for the ability to do mortgages. and what we haven't talked about. There was a point in my career, after the first half I worked inside a credit unions, but I ultimately got tapped by the White House, and ended up being a senior advisor to the US Treasury Secretary.
And I thought, I thought for sure credit unions were going to be common language in the halls of the US Treasury for gosh sakes, one third of this nation's population has an account at credit unions. Now, granted, it was in an era leading up to the Great Recession, most of the conversations in the halls of the US Treasury were focused on, what was about to blow, up in the financial services space, in the great recession.
But it was really disappointing to me with the DNA and the history of, of, of the work that I did inside of credit unions to recognize that the public policy environment also did not see credit unions as part of the solution. And, and so you, [00:28:00] you talked a little bit about my dna of where I came from, the journey and the stop that I made.
being a a political appointee at the highest levels of, of federal government, for a handful of years probably lit the fire in my belly. to say we have got to do differently. About how we talk about credit unions, how we insert the credit union piece of the economic solution into the public policy conversation.
and it's, it frankly, is a, a bit of the impetus, behind the, the, the brand and, and what we've built as Go West. the 300 credit unions that serve, serve the, the marketplace in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, they are so passionate and so tight to the consumers. that story.
And, and frankly it's part of that, that, that, that spirit we have out west of building these solutions that are [00:29:00] insurmountable, and sustainable in our own communities and credit unions are a part of that dna. And without them, what would we do? I mean, you're sitting, you're sitting in one of the northwest states in Oregon and doing this podcast, and, and there's 60, not 30% of the population, but 60% of the population in Oregon and Washington, Idaho, that used credit unions as their primary institution.
Can you imagine a world without them? Can you imagine a world one day when credit unions wouldn't be relevant? and I think there would just be this sucking sound in the economy. we contract with an external, economic firm, eco Northwest to really wrap their arms around credit unions in each of our six states.
And, and, and as long as we're talking about Oregon, let's talk about Oregon specifically, the credit unions in that state today. Provide a 3.8 billion financial impact. That [00:30:00] includes the real tangible value of the, the, the savings and the loans. it includes the employment. I mean, they're, they're one of the largest employers with almost 20,000 jobs.
I'm sorry, six or 7,000 jobs, W2 jobs. But for every job that's, that's created inside of a credit union, there's two and a half jobs created on the outside. So that's another almost 20,000 jobs. the compensation, and then you add in the access to capital and the loans that, the capital that's being dispersed by their credit unions, it is a part of the fabric of the community, and we need to make sure that they're continually being relevant from a products and services and a digital evolution perspective, but also from a public policy perspective.
Josh DeTar: Troy, I know you've got, we're recording. For those of you listening, we're recording on a Friday and I know you said you have a flight Sunday morning. I'm gonna need you to go ahead and cancel that 'cause I think we're still gonna be talking. By the time you have [00:31:00] to board the flight with just everything you gave me to go over.
You know, one of the things I wanna put a, a little stake in the ground that I, I, I want to just put in your mind that I want to come back to is, you know, you were talking about, your time, in government and the time and history that that was. I think that's pretty ultra relevant to what's going on right now.
I think we should come back to talking a little bit about, some of the recent, bank failures and just the impacts that that's gonna have on the credit union industry. But, you know, before we get too far in, it's funny we're, you know, already over 30 minutes into recording and I had told you one of the first things I wanted to have you talk about was actually defining a credit union from your perspective.
I know we've kind of done a lot of that by just talking anecdotally about the impacts that credit unions have and the importance that they have and, and kind of communities and lives, but. You know, especially as somebody who quite literally, your job is to go tell people what a credit union is and why is a credit union important?
I think it's a [00:32:00] missed opportunity to not have you kind of define that for us here on this podcast. And, you know, specifically you talked about, the acronym that you kind of use. So if you wouldn't mind, maybe just take a few minutes and, you know, I would say even maybe run me through a couple of different lenses.
you know, you're, you're talking to somebody, while you're hiking the hill and you're talking to somebody on an airplane about, you know, what is a credit union and why should I care, like, how do you, how do you define that? How do you structure that? What does that conversation look like for you?
Troy Stang: Those poor people that were, in the aisle and the window seat last night, on the Southwest Airlines flight that I was on, got to learn about credit and one was a member. They could articulate it, the other was not. so there you go. we had, 60% of the population and our three row seat, members of credit unions.
but if you hear me on a plane, if you hear me in an elevator, regardless of one story or 30 story elevator ride, you will hear s [00:33:00] v I. and that's my challenge to everybody who's involved with credit unions, including. Members of credit unions, not only employees, not only are the 33,000 people who work for Go West Credit Unions in these six states, or the half a million people who work for credit unions across the nation.
You've gotta start with our structure. You gotta start. I, I get to work for a not-for-profit, cooperatively owned financial institution. That's the coolest thing in the world. where our decisions are, are all centered around the needs of the membership that we serve. We've gotta start with the structure.
That's the only thing that makes us unique. It's what was intended to be the thing that made us unique from the beginning. And that is not a corporate structure that returns an investment return to a small group of stockholders. It is, it is intended to provide and distribute the earnings of the cooperative in the [00:34:00] forms in things such as more attractive loan rates, more attractive saving rates, products and services access, whether digitally or via branches, to, to our members.
That structure is gonna be the majority of what you hear me talk about in an elevator on an airplane. you will also hear me, talk about the direct value. being a member of a credit union means they are financially better off year after year, and that can be a different number based on what credit union they're a member of.
I just saw some of our, our credit unions just yesterday, announcing. Their year-end numbers, they're doing their annual meetings now with their membership and, and they're talking about, you know, 180, $260 per member household or per member per year in a day and age of inflation. In the [00:35:00] day and age when your grocery bill is a little bit higher, those a hundred and eighty, two hundred and thirty, two hundred $60 per member in your back pocket makes a difference.
And when the members have that, the membership has that in their back pocket. They have more to invest, more to spend in local community. So that's the value, that's the, that's the v and the S V I The 'I' is the impact that we make in our communities. The eye to grandpa's credit union as a Catholic credit Union meant that the credit union, was very woven into probably the Sunday school and some of the education programs, the financial education classes that they did back then.
How to balance a checkbook. I remember that growing up, going to Sunday school, there was a, there was a financial education, component, to our Sunday school that was the taught by the credit union. It was how that credit union was woven in the communities. In the modern era. You look around, the [00:36:00] nation, you look around these, these states, like to call out Wyoming.
They have a beautiful, hunger initiative in partnership with the First Lady. and one Credit union found the opportunity through a conversation with the governor's wife. The amount of student lunch debt that existed and the, and the credit union leader said, Hey, we can do something about this. So in partnership with the first lady, Brian Rohrbacher from Atlantic City Credit Union pulled all the credit unions together in Wyoming and they turned around and made a commitment to the first lady and her initiative to pay off all the student lunch debt across the state.
That is the impact that we make in the community. That is us, as credit unions giving back to the community, being a part of the fabric, and student lunch debt, healthy communities, healthy kids, not having to worry about where they're gonna get their [00:37:00] student lunch makes a difference in the financial wellbeing and the financial health and the overall health of the household, but also the communities that make up Wyoming.
That's the impact. So that's a long winded. Josh, a long-winded answer, and that had to be a pretty high skyscraper, a pretty big, a long elevator ride. But I tried to bring the s v i to life in that we gotta talk about our structure, we've gotta talk about the real tangible value, what's in it for me to the consumer.
And we've gotta talk about the impact that we make in our communities when we walk into any one of these state capitals with the economic reports and the community impact reports that summarize the structural differences of credit unions, the value that they're delivering to their memberships, the impact that they're making in their communities.
Whether I, I'll never forget meeting the Colorado governor on the [00:38:00] steps, under the dome at the, at the state capitol this year, or in Oregon or in Washington, when the governor's come walking in with the summary reports about the economic and the, community impact. Holding that report in their hands saying, how do I get more of this in my state?
You know, you have inverted the conversation to an understanding of why cult financial cooperatives are so important in the fabric of America today. but every community across these six states,
Josh DeTar: So, Troy, I want to ask you kind of a, a loaded question. you know, you talk about, just the percentages of people that use credit unions and yet there's still a tremendous lack of awareness. you know, you talked about it even in, you even in government, right? Like you got in there and you're like, of course they're gonna know about credit unions.
Why would they not know about credit unions? And they didn't know about credit unions. [00:39:00] And now all the work that you're doing is, is getting to flip the script so that these governors are coming to you and saying, oh my gosh, I see the impact credit unions are having in my state. How do I have more of that?
I know you have more of that by having more membership, right? More utilization of products and services and you know, I think, you gave the great example of just the flight you were on the other day, and I can probably give you similar numbers. If I just went down the street in my neighborhood, right?
My neighbor right next door to me works for a credit union, neighbor next to me when I talked to him about it, had no idea what a credit union was, right? Everybody, let's exclude, and this is a whole another podcast, the unbanked and underbanked, but even of just the banked individuals in the us, they all know about a financial institution.
It's still shocking to me how many of them don't know the svi of a credit union and why they should be at a credit union. Right. And, and I think like you, I probably, I [00:40:00] hope I add value to some of these people. I probably also drive 'em absolutely nuts, but like my favorite place is in, uh, like my Uber or my Lyft ride, especially when I'm like going to visit a customer or something.
I always ask 'em like, Hey, not to be weird or anything, but just outta curiosity, where do you do your banking? Right? And if they answer with a credit union, I ask 'em why. I'd love to hear more of their story. If they say with, you know, not a credit union, I always ask 'em like, Hey, do you know about a credit union?
Or even just a community bank, like a, a local community oriented financial institution that's focused on you. And I'm always curious to see what their responses are. you know, and then I try and articulate why they should be a member of their local credit union or of a credit union, or something of that nature.
And, and so what do you think is, you know, some of your thoughts on, on just the awareness side of things. What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? What, what do we need to do to get this s v i message out more clearer and to more [00:41:00] people?
Troy Stang: I am gonna, I'm gonna address that, an answer to that question, from two different perspectives. One from the marketplace, the, the consumer and the, the consumer of financial services marketplace. To understand where we are today as credit unions, you've gotta understand where we came from.
we've talked about grandpa's credit union far too much, today, but it's probably relevant in this conversation. All that credit Union was concerned about is talking to the parishioners of that church originally, and they could do that when they met at. 9:00 AM every Sunday morning.
they never had to have the DNA and the skill of talking about who they were, what they were beyond those wall, the walls or the parish walls. Today that credit union, has a community charter today. It, it's not everybody gathering at 9:00 AM on Sunday morning. and so it's a learned behavior of communication and, and marketing and an evolution.
And, and so I think our d n A is very humble. Our DNA isn't as, we [00:42:00] don't tout our horn as much as, as we could and should. and I think part of it is tied into where we came from, but where we came from. Now, here's where I'm gonna flip to from a public policy perspective, the early founding documents and the charters and the public policy environments.
That we were created. Sometimes in some places, that is the only documentation of the what and why we were. and so when somebody gets elected in a state election or in a federal election, and, and they get appointed to a, a jurisdictional committee in the senate, banking house, financial services, or just serve in Congress or in a state legislative body, you know, they can't know about every industry.
And if you're not a credit union member, you, you probably as elected official, understand that. 1 0 1 version of credit unions from seven decades ago in the shoebox of, [00:43:00] of the church. and there was, you know, the evolution throughout the years is not captured as well in a split second. And that's our job today, as a credit union movement and as an association, is to get those brand new elected officials up to speed to what we are and how we've evolved today.
But when I talked about the frustration I had, walking the halls of the US Treasury was our opposition, our opponents will, will extend that message of, no, they should be these shoebox credit unions. Back down in the basement of the Catholic Church. they love that. that's part of positioning, right?
and we've gotta tell the story. I cannot believe yet today from a US government perspective, we have a limitation on member business loans based on our capital, based on, based on some [00:44:00] artificial arbitrary parameters that were inserted in statute in 1998. If you went back to grandpa's credit and that arbitrary number of, of 12 and a quarter percent.
And yes, we've got some other, waivers and variables now being added where one to four, residential properties aren't considered member business. We've chipped away at it, but who's keeping us limited and, and what we can do, you can't go back to grandpa's credit union and say, sorry, farmers. Only 12 and a half or 12 and a quarter percent of you I can serve.
We've been in the business lending services from day one in so many of our credit unions. And, and so Josh, every day there's some force, whether it's your opposition that is trying to define who you are, and if there's anything your listeners hear in this podcast is a [00:45:00] strong desire and encouragement that we, you all have got to get much more bold in talking about who we are, what we are, through a lens of s v I, to ensure you, your coworkers, your neighbors, your members that you serve every day in the credit union, understand what makes this model so differently.
Josh DeTar: I want to talk about how we're seeing a big entrant of, you know, technology first, FinTech neobank, type niche banking services that are coming up and kind of how that plays into it, but, I'm just, I'm gonna play a little devil's advocate with you here, and I think you know where I fall on this, but I'm still gonna ask the questions so that I can get you to kind of provide the response.
You know, one of the things that I think comes up a lot when you start talking about, you know, credit unions and their evolution and the breaking down of barriers of geographical walls or membership walls. being able to provide more services into things like commercial lending. [00:46:00] And, you know, I hear the, the comment all the time if it, you know, walks like a duck.
If it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. And that gets used a lot in, you know, why do credit unions have preferential tax status? And, you know, why and how are they treated differently than banks? And that's a lot of the work that you're doing. Right. And I think that comes a lot back to the svi.
So just as that starts to come up in the conversations that you have, you know, how does, the cooperative of credit unions getting together in forms like the leagues and associations, like how are you navigating that messaging to ensure that credit unions have the ability to continue to evolve, but remain true to who they are?
Troy Stang: Josh, we're not a duck. We don't quack like a duck. We don't walk like a duck. we're a not-for-profit, cooperatively driven, member owned, member driven financial cooperative. We're not enriching a small [00:47:00] group of stockholders. Were not driven. By the needs of investors on Wall Street. We are owned by our members.
Our structure, our DNA is different. There is a philosophical grounding in our nation, that anything that can be done in a for-profit environment should be able to be done in a not-for-profit environment. It is not the products and services or how we deliver access to capital or access to your savings or transactions that makes us a credit union or some other form of financial institution.
It is, it is not who you serve from a market perspective. That, or a field of membership that makes you a credit union. Field membership was only a part of who we were originally because put yourself back in 1930, communication. The ability to get outside your walls was not so easy. The [00:48:00] only way grandpa's group ever created community was Sunday morning at nine o'clock.
So access to and how we define community today has changed. So we are not a duck, we don't quack like a duck. We don't walk like a duck. we walk like credit unions, and we deliver services that are so focused on, and I would invite any, any otherwise organized financial institutions to give up their stock ownership, their stock dividends, convert their for-profit institution to a not-for-profit institution with a passion and desire to serve a membership like any one of our credit unions across the nation are.
And I have yet to have a group of investors and for-profit institutions take me up on that offer. And if they did, they would understand. It's not about [00:49:00] enriching a group of stockholders, it's about providing more members to a membership to provide an impact to the community. and that's what drives our dna.
And our communities need to be reached through digital services. They need to be reached through all the means with new products and services each and every day. 'Cause the world's evolving. and I think I'm being rhetorical here, but I think good public policy, especially in this day and age where we're seeing fractures in some of the financial services space, especially in the for-profit, investor driven space.
Failing. Getting back to your first question, I think consumers, your neighbors. My neighbors, the people I meet on airplanes. Are asking themselves, who are they doing business with? And it matters. And this is why it matters. and so it's a tired, old argument [00:50:00] from, from, frankly, the for-profit banking sector.
but you know what? Come on over to the side. Be a not-for-profit cooperative. Distribute your earnings to your membership and make an impact in your communities. That's insurmountable. And then let's have the conversation.
Josh DeTar: In,
Troy Stang: Josh, uh, sorry. You also, a few questions ago hinted to underserved communities.
and I gotta tell you, there's not a community or underserved marketplaces. There's. Those, yes, there's concentrations, but they exist in every one of our neighborhoods. There's households who do not have the confidence in their financial services, have, have the understanding of how to sit down and look at holistically at, at their financial wallet.
and when we talk about expanded services, modernizing services, modernizing public policy so that credit unions can be relevant, it is [00:51:00] so that we can walk the journey, with our, our family, our friends, our neighbors, our communities, that are underserved and unbanked.
Josh DeTar: You know, I, I appreciate that you made that the comment about, You know, every industry should have a not-for-profit, alternative. our CEO SiVA very well, and that's something that Siva is really, really passionate about as well, is, you know, there's absolutely, arguably objectively benefits that come from having both models, right.
You know, we overuse this example, but it's, it's an easy one to relate to. You look at the Amazons, right? Amazon is a huge for-profit company. you know, our, our good buddy Jeff, you know, what did he, he just built a yacht so big they had to dismantle a bridge to move his yacht out the ship building yards, right?
So yeah, you got a few individuals that are making a significant, Amount of money off of this. It's a [00:52:00] for-profit entity, right? And could he have spun Amazon up as a cooperative possibly. Would it become what Amazon is today? Maybe, maybe not. But it became what it was because of capitalism. And as much as some of us may say, oh, you know, we hate the big companies and everything, you know, they say that as they're walking to their front porch to go get a package from Amazon off of it.
And so at the same time, we're also talking about how important it is for us to shop local, to support local, to support small businesses. And what has happened with the evolution of how Amazon has, has taught consumers that they want to do business. Now, it's also caused some of our mom and pop shops, our small businesses, our local, main Street providers to step up their game and maybe rethink how they've done some of their business models.
And it's also challenged Amazon to be more thoughtful about, you know, how they do things like community impact and giving and [00:53:00] how they do their, you know, practices. And so there is this kind of benefit of having both sides. And I absolutely see that in the banking industry, right? I mean, JP Morgan Chase is not its size because it's a completely useless option, They are the size they are because there's an option that people want to do business with them. There's
Troy Stang: nothing in this.
Josh DeTar: mission to the credit unions, right?
Troy Stang: Yeah. There's nothing in this conversation that, that I have said it's bad to be for-profit. what I'm saying is don't artificially hold back the not-for-profit charter. because choice on Main Street choice to the consumer, you just articulated it beautifully. When you have choice, every provider gets better.
and so bring it on. but don't artificially hold back one corporate model, based on this perceived, or, or, or artificial, you know, lending caps or artificial market, [00:54:00] parameters. I mean, that's, that is, that is the last thing this nation and our communities need. They need more choices and holistic choices,
Josh DeTar: Well, and I think that also brings us to a really, really relevant topic of today, right? Which is. There's also ebbs and flows in just our economy and our world, right? And if every single business model is exactly the same, businesses would rise and fall with those ebbs and flows, and we would have even significantly more catastrophic impacts to everyday Americans.
If we all use this same exact business model and it fails under these circumstances and we're in that circumstance, then everything fails. But if you have a business model that's a little bit different, maybe it survives through that and it's able to provide the services that people need through that ebb and flow.
I think you talked about, you know, we went through a banking crisis, a little while ago, and we're going through another one today. and we're starting to see, you know, [00:55:00] granted what we've seen thus far has been some fairly isolated edge case issues based on some, you know, very specific parameters.
But nonetheless, we've seen some massive banks fail. And that has had an impact on consumer confidence, right? We've even seen that in how the money is moving today. And so having a not-for-profit cooperative model when all of a sudden we've got a little bit of distrust in that whole A, we're returning money to shareholders.
So that's our primary value prop. There's a little bit of love headed towards the, the credit union model in that timeframe. But, so I mean, how do you see, how do you see the difference in having the two models play out as, as we start to see, you know, big, um, you know, micro and macroeconomic changes as well?
Troy Stang: listen in, in today's world, we can look back at decades and decades of history books, and see the [00:56:00] economic, ebb and flows of our economy at the financial system. we talked on this podcast about great depression, great recession, failures of institutions. We also talked about public policy and, and every one of those chapters, none of those chapters have been identical.
and public policy and the operators of for-profit and not-for-profit institutions, I think have learned lessons, and our regulators have learned lessons. The the good news is we have not had, yes, we've had economic ebb and flows, recessions. So, but from everyone we've learned something different. when I was.
At the US Treasury, as a senior staffer, we learned lessons, from the times leading up to it, and, and public policy reacted and acted, to set new parameters. The learning at that time, [00:57:00] leading up to oh 6, 0 8. and the original Dodd Frank Bill was, was probably an overreaction by public policy, of a one size fits all sort of regulatory scheme.
and Senator Kreo, when he was the Senate Banking Committee chairman, he's a, a senior senator from the state of Idaho, led the, the enactment of Senate Bill 2155, which helped dial in, the difference between Wall Street and community institutions. I I don't think I know for a fact, public policies learned, from a regulatory implementation perspective.
Some of the reading, that I did last night on my plane was, was, you know, there's plenty of quarterbacking happening now. Not only in, in. The operations and management of financial institutions, but the regulatory, umbrella over institutions. What worked, what didn't work? where does it need to be, enforced or [00:58:00] hardened, a a bit differently?
but I think, and I hope, the guidance public policy instills in this is gonna be more surgical, if you will, to address the issues of the failures that are happening today, in the banking environment and not be a one size fits all. because the confidence, that we have in the financial services industry is so much bigger, than the few examples of the failures that are happening.
and so, and the other point I would make is, Uh, hats off to public policy, because as a former, public policy individual, in the George W. Bush administration, I gotta tell you, current administration's lean on the learning of past cycles and, and to be able to be invited back at the table, on why did we do what we did at Treasury at that time, and what learnings did we have and how should it be applied this time?
the [00:59:00] servants, the people who are serving in public policy today are doing exactly what you and I would do, and, and that is look at your past decisions, look at where you need to shore them up. and as painful as the solutions have been, to deal with the failures, I give a lot of credit to public policy for stepping in and doing the actions that they need to do to protect the integrity of the financial system.
Kudos, to the actions as painful as they are that they've taken. and to your point, kudos to every segment of the financial services for stepping in. and you mentioned, Jamie Diamond and, and Chase. and there's 5, 6, 7, 9 other institutions that have stepped in to help with some of those regional failures.
that is to be applauded, in our nation. and, uh, it brings and maintains the confidence that we need in the financial services system. And, and I don't, you know, enough with the rhetoric, yes, we can quarterback that, between administrations and politics and, and cycles [01:00:00] of, of failures and public policy.
My encouragement is tone down the rhetoric. Let's figure out the learnings and make sure, as we move forward, that we do instill in public policy and in the marketplace that we have choices in financial services. And well, dang it, the not-for-profit credit union cooperative choice is an important one that needs to be, in the landscape generations to come.
Josh DeTar: Troy, you got a mic anywhere near you? Do you wanna just drop it now or, no, I mean, gosh, I just, I love the way you put that, you know, it is, you look at just, I mean, not to get too political on this, but you, you look at basically every facet of everything that happens in our lives, and you can pretty much boil it all down to we're just, we're all humans.
We're all humans. We all have different starting points. We all have different challenges. We all have different measurements for [01:01:00] success. But ultimately, at the end of the day, all of us are just trying to live happy, beautiful lives and having the opportunity to have markets that serve different people in different ways, giving people choices, and most importantly, giving them equal opportunity to be able to have a beautiful life.
Like that's the goal for all of us. At least it should be. Right? And I just absolutely applaud hearing you talk and just knowing that there are people like you out there that have a voice that you're willing to use and that you're willing to, and I know you will agree with it. Scream at the top of your bloody lungs to anyone and everyone that will listen.
About making sure that we're putting structures in place to help people succeed. Like that's just, that's a really beautiful thing. and just, I really appreciate the work that you and your team and that those like you all across the country are doing to help give consumers choice and give them options [01:02:00] and give them, most importantly, opportunity to buy a tractor to go farm their field.
Like that's a really cool thing, Troy.
Troy Stang: Well, thank you. Thanks for your, service to the industry and, and what Tyfone does, again, helps tremendously, these credit unions evolve their delivery of services to the members, and meet the members where they are tomorrow. things which for what you do to bring awareness to that, to the credit union model and, and you and your team.
Thank you.
Josh DeTar: I appreciate it. Well, before I let you go, I have two final quick questions for you, Troy. So, first of which, Where do you go to get information about what's happening in our industry? And I recognize that might be a two hour podcast in itself. Just the answer to that.
Troy Stang: I referenced several times on this podcast, uh, you know, catching up on reading and, and industry news. the first place I go, in the work that I do, is directly to our members, 300 some credit unions that serve the, the communities across these six states. They've got the pulse on what is needed, what is needed in their [01:03:00] communities, but as importantly in our work, what is needed from a public policy, and an awareness perspective.
so that's the bellwether, that's my constant, constant measurement, because of the journey that I traveled through public policy, my channels to information in, in Washington DC are vast. and to be able to get into the heart of what public policy's thinking, both in on Capitol Hill. But also on, inside the administration.
and then so many of my colleagues, over the years, that have served at Treasury, end up at policy think tanks, public policy, organizations, in the beltway and, and frankly in some of these state capitals. and that's that network, is the network that we leverage in what we do, in Go West Day in and day out.
Josh DeTar: And if people want to learn more about what Go West is doing and how you do it, and if they want to connect with you, how can they do that?
Troy Stang: Absolutely, of course, I, I would be remiss if I didn't point them to our website, go West. and in it, [01:04:00] you will see not only the association's work, which is dialed down into a hyper-local environment for Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado. And so some of the impact reports that I mentioned this morning, you can see specifically in every one of those states, exactly what credit unions are doing to ensure that their not-for-profit structure is delivering real tangible value to their members and making an impact in the communities and what that impact is.
so they can see all that. They also see, not only our go West solutions, where we will highlight, organizations like yours, the business partners that are helping make financial services relevant inside of, of credit unions, helping credit unions to evolve. But you'll also see Go West Foundation.
which really, brings the connective tissue and the fabric between all 300 of our credit unions and, and help dial in some of the impact opportunities inside of our communities. There's outside philanthropic and appropriate dollars that are [01:05:00] intended to be delivered in our communities, and you'll learn a whole lot about that in our Go West Foundation on our website as well.
And my email is tstang, it's — like mustang — @gowest.org.
Josh DeTar: Awesome. Thanks Troy. Well, thank you so much for taking time outta your day to come and be a guest on the podcast. now get off this podcast, get back on your plane and go out and evangelize, sir.
Troy Stang: Thank you sir.
Josh DeTar: All right. Hey, I appreciate it again. it's always a pleasure talking to you Troy. Thanks for spending some time with me on the Digital Banking Podcast.
Troy Stang: you. Thanks for what you do.