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Although credit unions are often eschewed as tax-avoiding competitors by traditional banks, these membership-based financial institutions are gaining popularity among consumers.
In recent years some credit unions have even been purchasing banks — a once unthinkable happening. A recent headline on American Banker.com sums up the trend like this: “Credit unions are buying more banks. Get used to it.”
So it should come as less of a surprise, then, when a career banker shifts his path to a credit union. That's what mortgage banker David Collins recently did, when Lake Michigan Credit Union in Fort Myers named him an executive mortgage loan officer. Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Lake Michigan Credit Union acquired Encore Bank of Naples in 2017, part of a plan to grow its Southwest Florida market share. The credit union has $5.4 billion in assets and $4.7 billion in loans.
Collins made the bank-to-credit-union shift after making the rounds at several banking institutions in Fort Myers, namely Mutual of Omaha Bank, Regions Bank, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and AmSouth Bank.
“From my perspective on the residential home mortgage side, it was a pretty easy decision to make the move from a local community bank to the credit union,” Collins tells Coffee Talk. “For my member-clients, I have access to everything that a bank mortgage lender has, plus I have portfolio capability of the credit union, which allows me to have customized solutions, as well as home construction loan programs, for my member-clients.”
What the credit union offers in addition, Collins says, are typically lower rates and fees than do conventional for-profit banks, which must answer to investors rather than their member-owners. (And, bankers often point out, pay taxes that nonprofit credit unions, regardless of total size in assets, don't pay.)
A native of Cape Cod, Mass., Collins serves on the board of directors for Lee Health, where he has been a treasurer since 2014. He is also a past board member of Pace Center for Girls of Lee County, and was treasurer for its capital campaign from 2010 to 2013. In addition, Collins served on the executive leadership team for the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk and as a member of its Red Tie Society.
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