Empowering Communities: A Credit Union CEO’s Vision for Financial Success

Connect & Collect Podcast - Season 2, Episode 12

In this episode of Connect and Collect, we welcome the dynamic CEO of Border Federal Credit Union, Maria J. Martinez. With a profound dedication to her community and a rich portfolio of leadership roles, Maria shares her journey through finance and community service. Starting from her early days in banking to her current role leading a credit union, her story showcases the power of effective networking and community involvement. This episode dives into Maria's leadership challenges and triumphs, her strategic response to the COVID pandemic, and her proactive approach to community development and financial education. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in leadership, community impact, and the evolving role of credit unions in fostering economic growth and stability.

For more information on Maria's work and her associations, visit:

• Border FCU
• CUWLA (Credit Union Women’s Leadership Alliance)
• NLCUP (National Association of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals)
• PSCU/Co-op Solutions
  
  

Jump Ahead:

• 00:00 Introduction and Maria Martinez's Accomplishments
• 04:49 Maria Martinez's Journey to Becoming CEO
• 07:44 Border FCU's Unique Membership and Community Focus
• 11:00 Border FCU's Response to COVID-19
• 13:21 Retaining Employees and Staying Competitive
• 18:07 Financial Counselling
• 23:29 Community Programs
• 26:54 Lending as a Tool
• 28:05 Building Trust with Members
• 29:30 Opportunities of Electronic Collections
• 35:01 Engaging with the Younger Generation
• 38:56 Involvement in Industry Associations and Conferences

Read the Transcript:

[00:00:00] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop (intro): Welcome to the Connect and Collect podcast brought to you by Lexop. Connect and Collect is a podcast created with the credit union professional in mind. Our goal is to bring you the latest innovations and trends in the industry by speaking with incredible credit union leaders so you can hear what's happening at the ground level.

[00:00:21] Here's your host, Michael Pupil, Vice President of Sales at Lexop. 

[00:00:26] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Hello and welcome back everybody for Lexop's newest edition of Connect and Collect. I've got a really interesting guest that I get to speak with today and that you guys hopefully get to learn a lot about. Maria Martinez has joined us for Connect and Collect. So before I kind of list off some of the accomplishments that you have Maria, I just want to say a big thank you for donating some of your time to join us today and chat.

[00:00:53] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Well, thank you for having me, it's a pleasure.

[00:00:56] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Thank you. And so, instead of reading a [00:01:00] biography, you know, Maria, I, we were talking about this just earlier. I was looking at some of the things that you were doing and man, do I feel lazy and I may have to, I may have to figure out a way to donate my time a little bit more. Because aside from being the CEO of Border Federal Credit Union, a credit union with about $230 million of assets, serving about 27,000 members.

[00:01:21] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: You're also the associate director of PSCU's co op solutions board. You're the founding member and vice chairwoman of the credit union women's leadership line, CUWLA, the founding member and chairwoman of the National Association of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals, the NLCUP. You serve asterisks in case I get the pronunciation right, but a board on the inclusives, juntos, avanzamos advisory committee. Did I get that right?

[00:01:50] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Pretty close.

[00:01:52] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Very close. You'll help me on that one. You're also the chairwoman on CUNA strategic services, the CSS board and vice president of the [00:02:00] United Medical Centers board in your community, along with other volunteering and board committees that you're part of.

[00:02:05] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: We won't go there.

[00:02:07] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Yeah, right. What I think is absolutely amazing about all of that is one, the dedication that you have to the profession as a whole in a lot of different areas. Also targeting into women's leadership and obviously serving the members in the community. But what a wild amount of experience in different areas that I'm sure serve you on a day to day in any of the roles that you're in.

[00:02:32] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And what was that by intent or is it just, you're so amazing that everybody wants you part of the groups that they're starting?

[00:02:39] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: I think it just happens, Mike, when you get involved in the industry, you start one place and then you encounter people that want you to serve as part of a committee or a board. And then sometimes it's hard to say no, but you need to learn how to say no. And I've [00:03:00] learned lately how to say no, but it's really hard.

[00:03:03] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And it's because you're growing in your career. You want to make the most out of it. And I think that's why I started. I started with the leagues. At the state level first, I started here locally. I would serve on some of the boards, and then eventually, the league approached me about serving on a committee.

[00:03:18] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And so I served on the grants committee with the foundation of the league. And then I started on different committees, the international committee, the CFPB board, you know, they, had a, an advisory board at the time. So you just, you know, start getting good at it, I guess, and, you just learn.

[00:03:36] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: You, you just learn so much. All of this has helped me so much and then you get to meet so many people. So, you know, you meet people that you don't even realize that they're going to help you at some point. And that's why I love it.

[00:03:50] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Well, I'm really glad that you didn't say no to, to doing this activity. And you have been so kind with your time. You and your team in terms of [00:04:00] chatting with us. And so, I'm grateful that we made the list and didn't get cut out of that, but you're right. I think it all starts with get started. You know, get started somewhere traditionally, probably, locally would be the first place to get involved. And you do get better over time. And if you're committed and dedicated to what it is that you're doing, then yeah, the natural gravitation of having you be part of other things. 

[00:04:24] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: You're also incredibly wise. And so, you've not been doing this for a short period of time, you have seen a lot in your time. And so you bring to the table a lot of experience and I'd love to start there. I'd love to start with, you know, your foundations in working with the credit union and ultimately getting into the position of CEO. And that I think is going to serve as a, as an inspiring story to share with the group, if you don't mind.

[00:04:49] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: I don't mind at all. So, when I graduated from college, I had to make a decision whether to go into the profession of [00:05:00] hospital administration or banking. And it was just so funny because I had an offer from both areas the same day. And I needed to make a decision which way I was going to go. And I opted to go into banking.

[00:05:17] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Back then, savings and loans were the big thing. And I was hired to do data entry. I had my bachelor's degree in accounting. But that's all I could get, a data entry, a clerk, which I was helping the tellers balance their work in, you know, one of those old, computers, you know, with the green screens.

[00:05:37] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: But I was good at it. But I wanted to be in accounting. That was my ultimate goal. So, I would always go and visit the accounting department at, the Savings and Loan place, and I made friends with them. And eventually, there was a position that came open as a staff accountant, and I was hired for it.

[00:05:54] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And then a year later, I was promoted to, accounting supervisor. My boss [00:06:00] leaves, he goes to work for another savings and loan. And then he calls me, he says, I have a supervisor position open, you want to come and take it? And sure enough, I went, for the interview, I liked it, I stayed, you know, a couple of years.

[00:06:13] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And then, back then, when the newspaper used to announce the ads for, jobs, I saw one for a credit union in San Antonio, Texas. So I applied, it was an accounting manager and I said, Oh, well, I'm going to apply. I think there were like 70 something applicants at the time. And I was just very lucky to have gotten the job.

[00:06:34] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And then the rest is history. I know I started with credit unions and I went from a, an accounting manager to comptroller. And then we moved to Del Rio. I became the VP of lending. And then later on the CEO retired and I became the CEO. And here I am 28 years later as the CEO. So, it's been a great experience.

[00:06:56] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I love it. So between the introduction and just [00:07:00] the career evolution, the message right away is the networking, because you never know, you know, who you're going to meet, what it's going to lead to. And of course the dedication, hard work, you know, obviously follows suit because you need to perfect your craft and do it really well.

[00:07:15] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And if you love what you do, it doesn't really feel like work. But that networking side of things, it's really important. So now at the helm for, you know, 30 years, you have seen everything. Multiple cycles, multiple economic pieces. You were at the helm during the original, the last, you know, kind of dip and rebalance after the mortgage meltdown in 2008. You know, obviously through COVID. And I think there's lots of experiences that I'd love to have there.

[00:07:44] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: But before jumping into that, you know, I'd love for you to share a little bit about the unique membership of Border FCU and who it serves in the community. We mentioned about 27, 000 members, but I think you also come with a very interesting demographic of [00:08:00] members that you're serving, which is going to tie into that little piece that I was talking about before.

[00:08:04] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So I'm foreshadowing a question, but I'd love to take a half step back just to talk about the credit union, because I think it's pretty cool as well.

[00:08:11] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So we serve 13 counties in Texas. All the counties are rural counties. We're about 140 miles away from the major metropolitan city, which is San Antonio. And so the majority of the counties that we serve, you don't see the big influence of the big corporates or corporations. Except after COVID. After COVID, because people could work from home.

[00:08:37] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Now, you're starting to see more of that. The 13 counties that we serve out of those 13 counties, 1 of them, it's not underserved. So, they're not included on under what's classified as an investment area. The rest of them are. So, as you can see, we serve a very underserved community, so our programs have to be styled.

[00:08:59] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So that [00:09:00] those people can benefit out of the things that we do here. We are a community development financial institution, which is the CDFI. And we also have a low income designation. We're also consider a minority depository institution, which is an MDI. So, there's all this acronyms and we have it all. But with that, we're able to tap into some grant money because of the MDI and the CDFI and the low income.

[00:09:26] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, we can tap into non member deposits. We can tap into grants that we can bring back to the community and we can do a specialized lending. And by specialized lending, I mean, like, things that nobody else would do for their members, we're able to do it, including financial counseling and free income tax preparation.

[00:09:46] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, well, we've done it all. And that helps a lot.

[00:09:50] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Yeah, well, it strengthens the commitment to the community. It provides services to the community that are not readily available. Or, you know, these are [00:10:00] topics that all of us look at each other and wonder why it's not in primary school education all the way through high school, especially financial literacy, taxation, et cetera.

[00:10:10] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: My hope is that at one point, that conversation goes away, but it's organizations like yourself that tap into that and then provide those services. And, I think what has made, you know, our conversations very enlightening is the strategic response to crisis, COVID being 1 of them and everybody went through the same, you know, kind of shock of no more face to face. 

[00:10:33] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Then, you know, now back to it and how that is going to recover. And I'd love for you to share what will likely be similar to a lot of other credit unions that are listening to this, how it was treated. But I think it was unique. How, when we came out of COVID, how border FCU members, you know, interact today with the credit union. I'd love for you to give a pre and a post diagnosis of the interaction of members with, the [00:11:00] credit union.

[00:11:00] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, the other uniqueness that we have is we're on the border, Texas Mexican border. So it's, it could be a plus, but it could also be a deterrent in getting things done. So, during COVID, there was a challenge. We actually, we had just built a new, main office or we had expanded. So when COVID hits, it's almost like we planned it for here at the credit union, you know. 

[00:11:26] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Because we were ready to have isolated offices. So, we really never stayed home. I kept a few of my employees home because they either had COVID or because they had been exposed, you know. Back then you were exposed, you have to stay home. But we could separate people here in order for us to continue coming to the office and still servicing the members.

[00:11:50] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: We did end up closing our lobbies, but we had drive through services, which many credit unions in the nation may not have drive through services. It's very common in some [00:12:00] areas, but not in others. And so we did have all that the 1 thing that we were not ready for was a lot of the things on the technology side.

[00:12:09] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: You know, we didn't have remote deposit capture, for instance. People could not take a picture of their check and deposit it online. So we move really fast. I mean, that was the fastest we move in providing electronic services, but that was 1 of the things that we didn't have it. So, we launched it and then we had a onboarding through the website.

[00:12:30] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, we became very active in on the website and making sure that members were able to connect with us, whether it be through zoom or any other means. But I, you know, I can, I continue to come to work. Most of my employees continue to come to work. So, after covid, it was, we didn't have the problem of getting people back to work because we had already been doing it. 

[00:12:53] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Because we're a small community, we're like, 5, 10, 10 minutes away from our home. So, it was not hard for somebody to [00:13:00] come in and put in their time here, like, in the big cities.

[00:13:04] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Right. Now you mentioned that, you know, the typical exposure to, you know, mega corporates on the membership had been reduced. And then when COVID had hit, tell me a little bit about that influence. How did that influence the members and the credit union as a whole and what was the pivot that you guys 

[00:13:21] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: made?

[00:13:21] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, 1 of the biggest things was us losing employees, you know, because now you see this major corporations that can offer maybe a better salary, maybe better benefits. You know, they were influencing our staff to go work for them because now they could stay home and many of them, especially if they had little kids, they could stay home and still manage to work from home.

[00:13:46] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: However, many of them came back because they found out that the culture was not there. And also during that time, you know, I went back to my board and I said. We need to [00:14:00] get competitive. This is a trend that's going to continue. Therefore, we need to be on top of the world. So we put together a salary administration program.

[00:14:11] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: That we implemented 3 years ago, and we were going to complete it in 3 years. And that salary administration program was to bring everybody closer to the midpoint of their salary range. Where before, they were closer to the lowest point. And so we worked on it and worked on it and improved our benefits.

[00:14:31] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And now I'm very competitive. Now, I can say that we can compete with anybody. Because our salaries are good, our benefits are good. And the culture, it's so good here. And that's what people are looking for. I think everything's going to come back to that. And as you can see, major corporations are Amazon and some of the big corporations, they're bringing people back. Because they know they're losing that. And it's so important to us, especially in a [00:15:00] small community.

[00:15:01] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: For sure. And I think it's very easy to lose culture, the larger you get. It is sometimes easier to be reminded of it. But it is still you know, like you say it's a competitive landscape. And look, I can't talk about all the departments, but certainly when Lexop is on, you know, numerous conversations with the collections departments, I can't tell you how many collections departments that we hear are short staffed. 

[00:15:25] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And that there are missing collectors and call it member solutions staff or, you know, support or, you know, whatever, the title is, but, what a wildly important role because it is member facing. And typically there are issues associated to it.

[00:15:42] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And that is exactly the communication that you want to be able to have to serve the members. So I thought that was very interesting, mostly because you guys had built a new branch. You pivoted to technology really quickly. You got competitive with it. And Maria, just the demographics of employees, just for [00:16:00] in case anybody is curious, how many FTE do you guys have?

[00:16:04] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: We're up to about 110 employees now. We have 5 branches. Most of them, all of them are full service branches. And yes, some of our branches may have up to 18 employees. Because we have drive throughs and we have lobbies. And our lobbies and drive throughs are so busy. People, you know, so it was so funny because during COVID, people got used to the drive throughs.

[00:16:29] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: We close the doors for the lobbies, but I'll tell you what. We open those doors in the lobbies, they all came back. They were ready to come back. Yes. 

[00:16:38] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: That's the culture piece of it for sure.

[00:16:40] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: It's a culture thing. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:42] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Yeah, I 100 percent agree. You know, when I was in college, my 1st job was at a bank here in Montreal. And I was too young and stupid to realize. But, there was somebody that would come in, you know, probably about three to four times a week. And he would always come in withdraw [00:17:00] $20, you know, $40 at most.

[00:17:02] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And it was always a very, very small transaction. But it would take 15 minutes, you know, at the booth. But it wasn't about the $20 or the $40, it was about the chit chat, the experience, and that person walking in and knowing the reception, knowing all the tellers, we knew exactly what, you know, he was doing. He knew what we were all doing.

[00:17:20] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And I think that is, almost a lost art, especially on the corporate side, it becomes easy to lose. And I'm so, this is why I love, you know, talking to leaders like yourself who embrace that, that culture and really dedicated to the team. And I think that's the essence of credit unions.

[00:17:37] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Maybe to pivot in terms of outreach and being innovative, you mentioned very lightly before about tax planning, et cetera. There's a lot of initiatives that you help lead and put out into the community. I would love to spend a couple of minutes because I think it's super creative.

[00:17:54] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: It obviously speaks to your demographic very well, but, talk to me a little bit [00:18:00] about the hands on initiatives for financial education workshops that you do and some of the collaboration that you look at employing there. 

[00:18:07] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So we've had some tough years, just like any other credit union. Starting with, like, back in 2008, 2009 when the economy was hurting. Housing was hurting. We also had our share of that. And we knew that we needed to do something. And back then we had started doing some financial counseling. And I had one counselor at the time.

[00:18:32] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And we were also doing the Volunteer Income Tax Preparation. And what that is, is through the IRS. And you would recruit volunteers to come in and prepare taxes. However, through the years, that became harder and harder because nobody wanted to volunteer. In order for you to be a tax preparer, you needed to have a certification and you needed to pass exams through the IRS. And we just got to the point where we had [00:19:00] to pay our staff in order for them to prepare those income taxes.

[00:19:03] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, we kept the program for many years on the income tax preparation. But our goal in doing that was not so much so that I could prepare your income taxes, but it was more so that I could counsel you so that if you needed to be counsel or you needed a savings account or checking account, we could provide you with that.

[00:19:23] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So it was a tool to get people into the door. And at the same time, turn around and provide them with the tools that they needed in order for them to survive in this economic role. And it worked out really good where we ended up establishing special programs, like, we establish a credit builder program.

[00:19:45] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Where it was almost like, no questions asked, but as long as you had direct deposit with us of your paycheck and a couple of years of at the same company, or within the same trade, you were able to get a loan from us. And build [00:20:00] some history, we would run a check credit report on you so that we could track your credit history.

[00:20:06] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And so that we could track your credit performance. And at the end of the 12 month period, once you paid off that loan, if your credit score improved, or if, you know, anything better happened within your credit history, you were able to renew that loan. And so people like that because they say, you know, somebody has given me an opportunity at a very low interest rate also.

[00:20:28] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Because most of these people were paying sometimes over 30 percent interest rate and that's when interest rates were low. But we found some that were paying 300 percent at some of the payday lenders. So we, all together with that, we established new programs and it's been really helpful for us to do that in or also, I mean, our community is the one that has really benefited from it.

[00:20:52] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, we did away with VITP, the Volunteer Income Tax Program. We did away with it last year. And we turn it into a [00:21:00] paid service. But it's a pay service that you can get your money back if you come to financial counseling. Because under VITP, we could not charge. It was a free program for those that were low income or medium size income, there was a threshold in there.

[00:21:15] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Under this program, anybody, whether you make $100,000, or whether you make $2,000 a year, you're eligible for this program. We give you a voucher for $50, we charge $50 to prepare your income tax, but you get a voucher that if you come back for financial counseling, you get your $50 back. So with this, we were able to reopen more accounts.

[00:21:38] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And, you know, bring in more people so that we could provide counseling and they're coming back for their $50. But now you can counsel them. Now you can give them some advice. 

[00:21:48] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So I'm so glad that we went through this. I love the idea. The last couple of years, there was a pretty large increase in indirect lending from credit unions, [00:22:00] especially in the car space for auto loans. And I believe that the idea was, is to, you know, acquire new members. That if we were underwriting a car loan at such a great rate that, you know, the consumer would be wowed that this credit union that they have no relationship with, is underwriting the car loan that they've got at what typically is a lower rate than our regional or even national bank. 

[00:22:27] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Now where I think that idea has fallen short for many, has been what you're doing so accurately of the conversion of trying to pull in the relationship of that individual in a different service, with the intent of financial education, planning, and ultimately, having them be embedded as a full service member, as opposed to just a one service, you know, kind of tool. 

[00:22:53] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And so I love that you do that. I may pick on something a little bit more. You have a very [00:23:00] fun night that you organize where there's a game onto this one. And I like it because, gamification has proven, it doesn't matter what your age is, what religion, sex, you know, cultural background, everybody likes to have a little bit of fun across the board. I think that's something that we can all agree on. But you also hold a pretty special night where you do bring in a number of individuals that is similar to the taxation side where you also have that benefit. What do you hold? What do you put on?

[00:23:29] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So we have several programs. One of them, though, it's a, we call it is a lotteria. Okay, lotterias is like a bingo. So, in Spanish, you know, you have a lotteria, it's a bingo card. Everybody gets one. So we give up prices also. So you win the game, you give, you win a price, but in between each game, we also do financial tips.

[00:23:52] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And we're starting to do these more frequently. So these are more frequently being done. And now that we have a community center here at the [00:24:00] Credit Union, we bring in people, we invite them, we feed them. Of course, you got to feed them, otherwise they won't come. And then we play with them, we give them prices.

[00:24:09] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: But then we give them financial tips. And it could be just on a, how to use a debit card or what, how to protect yourself from identity theft. It could be several things. So, that's one of the programs that we do through the financial counseling program, but then we also do a lot of the fundraising within our community.

[00:24:29] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: we put together a young professional group many years ago, and they started having mixtures so that we could collect coats. But, you know, in between that, I mean, we're also able to portray, you know, and exhibit our surroundings. So that people that want to join us, they know that it's easy to come in and join the credit union.

[00:24:50] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, we're always thinking outside of the box on how to, how can we get people to come in. And we can be of service and we do a lot of projects with [00:25:00] the young kids also. We used to host before COVID, a youth fair. We have not hosted that. We didn't, we never went back again to hosting that, but we're looking into several areas there to see how we can do it.

[00:25:14] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: But anything that we can do to attract people, you were talking about indirect lending. We've never done indirect lending. And I believe that the way I can do the lending is by offering my members a cashback idea. So you refinance your vehicle with us, you get money from me. Instead of me paying the dealerships.

[00:25:37] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So we've always done it that way. And if you look at my financial, our financials look good. One of the things that we do when we do our budget, and our board is pretty in sync with this, we don't look so much at the bottom line. We like a good bottom line. But we look at the programs. 

[00:25:54] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And, you know, we have a planning session and we say, okay, we want to do all these things. And in order [00:26:00] for us to do all those things, what is it going to take on the budget side?

[00:26:03] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, we put all the programs on the budget and we may not get to all of them, but we know we have them on the budget. And so eventually, even though I may, a schedule for half a million dollars on the bottom line, we've always come ahead of that because we know that if the programs work, your bottom line is always going to be a lot better.

[00:26:23] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, you know, you mix the fun with the work and I think things are going to work out good.

[00:26:30] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: For sure. You also take a topic that has been historically difficult to get a lot of people to take an active interest in, even though my opinion is everybody likes money, but there are too many people that avoid the intricacies of what money means. Especially when it comes to lending. And so a tool, just like anything else, lending is a tool.

[00:26:54] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: It's a tool for you to acquire assets or to be able to do projects, but [00:27:00] misused, and it can be incredibly damaging. Used correctly and my God, it could open the door to beautiful, a beautiful life for family and for the community as a whole. So there is a great snippet of, you know, if you don't have an indirect loan portfolio, or if you do have an indirect loan portfolio, there is a perfect, you know, kind of pivot that you looked at it differently and didn't go down the same road as, what many have done.

[00:27:25] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And there are a contingent, there's a number of credit unions that didn't get into that, but I can tell you. Those that do have an indirect loan portfolio, sometimes that is the part of the portfolio that is the most bruised because there is the least amount of a relationship that is there.

[00:27:43] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And don't get me wrong there's some credit union that do an amazing. job with indirect lending, and it works so good for them. I think that mainly goes for credit unions are in the big cities. Where you have so much competition, where you're losing loans to other, not, just other [00:28:00] credit unions, but also, you know, the major corporations, you know, that finance vehicles.

[00:28:05] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, you got to get on the game, you know, for us, it was helpful that we were in a smaller community where people trust us. Because they come with to us and they trust us. And also the idea that if you don't make your loan payment, we're not going to take the vehicle away from you right away. We're going to work with you until we can no more.

[00:28:26] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And that's the way we've always worked and people know, they say, but I'd rather go with the credit union because we know that if something happens in my work career, they're going to work with me to get me back on track. And we're known for that.

[00:28:41] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And my goodness, the numbers of repossessions in 2024 are much, much higher than they've historically been, and they continue to increase. So you're spot on. I think the big thing is, you obviously have to take a look at the demographic, the community that you're serving, whether it is big city, rural, you know, et cetera, what part [00:29:00] of the country that you're in, and every credit union, while it is a credit union, you're going to have differences and the demographics of the members will dictate, you know, how this is going to be, you know, better handled, if you will.

[00:29:14] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Yeah, and we have a great, I mean, there are collections department. I mean, I, we build a really good collections department. And of course, it goes hand in hand with your underwriting. But if you have a good collections department, that's on track with things, it's going to help. 

[00:29:30] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: I think, you know, getting more electronically oriented on the collection side would really help us to continue doing a good job for the members. Because now that people feel more at ease with getting a text or getting an email, than before.

[00:29:46] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Before, you couldn't do that. You would have to call every single individual and if they had a landline, you ran the chance of them not being there, you know, at home. And now, at least everybody has a cell phone, you know, you can [00:30:00] incorporate them into more of the text banking, the text notifications.

[00:30:04] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And so there's so much opportunity now for the electronic, transfers and electronic collection of funds. So it's yeah, it's getting better. 

[00:30:14] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I could not agree more. That's where a lot of. 

[00:30:17] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Yeah, I know. I wonder why 

[00:30:21] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Yeah exactly. Well, that's where our communications between our two groups have been the most fun and it is fun because collections just like lending, I see it as the same coin. It's just the opposite side. All of the pivots, the investments, and the foresight into changing the technology at the front end, were necessary. 

[00:30:42] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Because COVID came around and it stopped the traditional, the majority of the traditional use. Now there's a lot of organizations since the 2008, you know, kind of crash and the rebound while the market had continuously gone up. And there are no credit unions out there that have an [00:31:00] underwriting team that is just frivolous with the approvals.

[00:31:02] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Everybody stays more or less conservative and within the guidelines that they're supposed to. And so delinquencies were really never so out of whack that it couldn't be fixed by underwriting just a little bit more, right? And kind of balancing it out for the acceptable percentage of write off that everybody was comfortable with.

[00:31:21] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: COVID really changed that because the entire economy changed once the interest rates started going up and the money supply started to decrease quite a bit and put everybody in a more, you know, kind of fiscally responsible method. And then technology started getting looked at because there were so many front end technologies.

[00:31:37] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Well, now, what do we do on the back end? And it's all to say that you need every single channel available to you. Border FCU, like you've said, they come back into the branch because they love that experience. You can't remove that. The drive in is another channel. Phone calls are another channel. And now yeah, email, text messaging, and other, you know, digital channels will help [00:32:00] engage certain pockets of the members that are there.

[00:32:03] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I couldn't agree with you more. Lexop a side for a second. It's a team sport and coordinating that communication is really important. 

[00:32:10] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: It is. And I always tell people that the reason some of the payday lenders things work for them, it's because if you really stop and think about it, they're calling their client, 2 or 3 days before the payments due. 

[00:32:26] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: In underserved communities, they're used to getting a payment reminder, and I believe that's why paid in lenders, they cater to that group because they, maybe they like to be reminded that their payment is due.

[00:32:40] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And that's something that we don't do. Because now you're coming in, we set you up on automated payments, or we set you up on this payment, we don't even send coupons anymore, payment coupons. Which I grew up on payment coupons. They would give you this book and then you would tear it and you would mail it out.

[00:32:59] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: But [00:33:00] nowadays, sometimes you can't even rely on the mail system because you may not get the payment to your financial institution in time. The payday lenders, what they're doing and we know, because my employees tell me this. That they're being called 2 or 3 days before, you know, just the courtesy call.

[00:33:16] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Hey, Mrs Martinez, your payments coming due in 2 days. Just wanted to let you know, thanks for doing business with us. They like that. We don't do that. Most credit unions, we don't do that because we don't have the personnel to do it. Or we don't have a system to do it. 

[00:33:31] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, you know, we probably need to start doing more of that because nowadays people like convenience. And conveniences remind me. That's why we carry our phones. That's why my calendar reminds me, you know, 15 minutes before the meeting, I'm set to go. Most people don't have that unless you've given that too. And you feel special. That's right. Yes. 

[00:33:54] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Yeah, you know, if you remember me and you remember that, you know, it's supposed to happen and of course the [00:34:00] language has to be reflective of the message that's going out so that you can politely, you know, kind of remember what's going on and ask if they need, you know, additional stuff.

[00:34:09] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And I agree with you and, well, you're not going to get much pushback on me from that. These are all the stuff that we were chatting about. But I completely agree. This also ties in really well with what is a topic of everybody. Is connecting with the newest generation that is upcoming who are all glued to these devices, the cell phones of, you know, either Apple or Samsung, whichever ones that are, out there, but they have their own unique language.

[00:34:38] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: They have their own unique experiences and what their buying patterns are going to be and where they ultimately fall loyal or how they evaluate to fall loyal to an organization. And while I don't think that anybody has the concrete answer as of yet, you also have developed programs specifically for Gen Z, if I'm not mistaken. [00:35:00] What do you guys do there? 

[00:35:01]  

[00:35:01] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So we start at the bottom at the lower level, like they say, you know, we start with the kids in junior high in the high school, we start with that. We have a financial conference that we do once a year in the summer, and we invite kids from the high school that are between the ages of 14 and 18.

[00:35:21] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So we bring them in. And we host a class for them that it's, it's catered by either the management team here at the credit union or our young professionals. So, we have a lot of young professionals here that also want to get their minds out there, you know, so that to help the younger adults.

[00:35:40] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And so they put together a conference for them and we teach them anyway from business etiquette. On how to behave at a table, you know, so how to, you know, go to an interview or how to buy a car, how to build good credit. So there's a numerous number of things that we [00:36:00] topics that we teach at the conference. So that's the, like, the very 1st, start. 

[00:36:04] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: One of the things that we're looking at right now. I remember when I graduated from college many years ago. I remember that the 1st card that I got was because there was an organization. It was actually one of the dealerships. They had this program where, if you had a job, you had a letter of employment, and you had your degree, you would show up with your degree in your letter and you would say, you know, I got a degree. I have a letter of for a job offer, I need a car now.

[00:36:34] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And they will let you have the car and that's how I got my 1st car. And I was able to pay it and build credit and everything. I don't think many of us are doing that anymore.

[00:36:43] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And we were just talking about it. And I would say, why don't we put a program together for those newly graduated college students that are getting into the job market that will need a car. So, we need to start maybe going back in history, how [00:37:00] things were done. But putting them in the new way of, you know, now we're going to set you up with automatic payments and automatic withdrawals and all that.

[00:37:09] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, I think things have changed, but I think we have room to do more things with the young professionals. Because they don't want to step into our doors. You know, I have three adult children and I don't believe they ever stepped into a financial institution. Everything they've done, it's online. Yeah. 

[00:37:29] 

[00:37:29] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And it makes it so easy and convenient to use these devices and like things like electronic signature has certainly escalated it, you know, quite a bit. I tell the joke all the time that, in a conversation with electronic signature, I was told by a credit union, you know, how dare I suggest that we want our members to come into the branch to sign for their car loan and or any documentation really even an account opening.

[00:37:54] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And today, I'm happy to say that they have electronic signature from every single use case that's there. [00:38:00] But there was a fear of using technology to lower the communication and reduce the relationship, right? Make it cold. And it's just transactional. And I think that is how technology is seen, that it is cold.

[00:38:14] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: But you have all of the programs that you're talking about, which if the transaction itself is just self serve, you allow the rest of the time to be more personal and more specific to the individual that you can creatively think of these campaigns that ultimately get a member engaged in the various products within the credit union. But more importantly, that they become educated on how to use those. So it's, it's amazing.

[00:38:40] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Maria, I know we're coming close to time. I want to be respectful for it. I want to conclude, with just giving you a little bit of time because you're on so many, you know, different boards, a lot of different associations, you know, what are some of the upcoming activities that you're coordinating that you're working on right now?

[00:38:56] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, two of the organizations that I'm in, one of them [00:39:00] is the Credit Union Women's Leadership Alliance, which is CULA, that's the abbreviation. We have an annual conference, and this is for smaller credit union CEOs that are women. In our industry, so we're trying to attract more of them. We have a really neat feature where we have, like, a community chat where if a CEO has a question on anything, whether it will be policy regulation, board relations, member relations, or employee relations, you can put your chat out there and you'll be surprised how many of them.

[00:39:36] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Empathize or sympathize with them and they'll answer. And so it's a really good group. We have a conference coming up in September of this year in Madison and so I'm hoping that maybe some of the women CEOs can join our CUWLA organization and become part of it. Y'all, can look us up online, you know, cuwla.com and, you know, find out more [00:40:00] about what we're doing.

[00:40:01] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: We also host meeting greets every month where we either bring a special guest or we have, you know, just people talking about what are some of the things that are going on in your credit union or just event. 

[00:40:12] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: That email address or that website is cuwla. com, right? 

[00:40:18] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Yes, correct. 

[00:40:20] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And so, yeah, and Lexop to be proud to help promote that. And, the link will be in this podcast as well, or one of the links that is in there. So that if those that are interested, for sure, take a look at it. I know if you're a part of it and you're the, one of the founders, I believe of that, association.

[00:40:38] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So this is something that is near and dear to your heart. So I'm excited, you know, to help promote that. And hopefully it is a wonderful event in September. Anything else that you wanted to share with the group before? 

[00:40:49] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: The other one is the National Association of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals. So that's another organization that I'm also founder and I chaired that organization right [00:41:00] now. And we have a conference. So, many years ago, we used to host Latino creating and conferences. And the last one was in, I believe it was in Dallas in 2012.

[00:41:11] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And so we're coming back. We're coming back with the Latino Credit Unions conference. You know, people, attendees are going to be able to learn about it lending. they're going to be able to learn about how to serve the Hispanic community. And what are some of the things for documentation on serving the undocumented?

[00:41:29] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: So, there's so much that no other conference that I know of, has information like this. And we're hoping that we can, you know, we can bring people. It's going to be in San Antonio, Texas. It's going to be in September, I believe it's September 16th, 17th. And you can also, you can find us at NLCUP. org and that is NLCUP for short.

[00:41:52] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: And so, find out about how you can become a member. We're also looking for sponsors for the event. So, there's a lot of information [00:42:00] out there.

[00:42:00] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So both of those events in September. And now we just scratched guys, of what Maria is doing. And you understand why my comment earlier was, I feel lazy in my life, that I need to figure out how to divide a little bit more and give back to a number of associations. But in all seriousness, Maria, Lexop will be happy to help promote and support you guys on both of them, well as some of the other initiatives that you're working on as well.

[00:42:25] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Thank you so much. And thanks for this opportunity. Mike, you know, I, you know, I really enjoy talking to you. It's a wonderful conversation and I just invite people to get involved. You know, the more you get involved, the more you get out there. You get to know people and whenever you need something, it used to be many years ago, we didn't have the Internet. 

[00:42:46] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: We didn't have ChatGPT. We didn't have a lot of sources that we have now. But I would pick up the phone, and I would, I could always get somebody on the phone that could guide me or help me. And that's how my career became better because [00:43:00] I was able to reach out to others. And that's what happens when you network, and we can get involved in our industry.

[00:43:06] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I couldn't agree more. And Maria, you've been so generous with your time, your insights, not just you, but your entire team is amazing to work with. And it definitely is a cultural piece that comes from the top down. And I would imagine that you're probably at a couple of other industry events, and I know that your team attends a couple of things throughout the year.

[00:43:25] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: You have always been so open at sharing your experiences that, I hope that continues for many, years. I know we just celebrated Mother's Day. So I want to just say a happy Mother's Day to you again. And Grandmother's day as well. I hope it was filled with lots of love over the weekend, knowing you, it absolutely was. 

[00:43:44] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Actually have a daughter that works in credit unions too. So, you know, I'm hoping that she follows the trajectory, you know, of, you know, becoming a CEO someday. 

[00:43:54] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Runs in the family. Talk about a cultural. 

[00:43:57] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: There's so much room, so much room for young [00:44:00] professionals in this industry, and it's, a great industry. You know, I invite young professionals to look into, you know, being on a credit union or in one of the service organizations that provide services to credit unions.

[00:44:12] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: There you go. I can't picture any other way to sign off with those words of wisdom of if you're looking at the, there's the blueprint, get involved and look at what you can do in your area and with the different groups. And there's a lot of them that are out there. 

[00:44:29] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Maria, thank you so much for this. Everybody listening and watching this stuff here, thank you for joining Lexop's Connect and Collect podcast. We're going to be back next month with another speaker. The bar is getting higher and higher as we talk with you guys. Maria, you know, it just, your insights are amazing. It's always a pleasure to see you and I can't wait to see you again and face to face some point soon.

[00:44:52] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So thank you.

[00:44:53] Maria Martinez - President/CEO at Border Federal Credit Union: Well, Thank you so much, Mike. Thank you. Appreciate it.