OUR MISSION & VISION
Our Mission
"To provide a forum for collaboration and cooperation."
Our Vision
"Every credit union collaborates with other credit unions."
A Message From Our Founder
I formed Southern California Credit Union Alliance (SCCUA) in 2008 out of a need to collaborate with other credit unions. As the CEO of three small to mid-sized credit unions, I realized that I am not the only one facing the challenges of rising costs, declining loan volume and shrinking margins that have affected our industry for the past ten years.
I have always believed that collaboration and cooperation are fundamental to the Credit Union industry. An industry that was formed during the depression on three simple words "people helping people." Charles Darwin once said, "It is the long history of mankind that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." The credit union industry has changed over the years but our guiding principles of "people helping people" still remains the same. However, in order to continue our mission, credit unions need to work
together to reduce our operating costs and leverage our buying power to ensure our survival and the survival of the Credit Union industry.
We must dispel the myth that credit unions compete against each other. Credit unions have been in existence in the United States for more than 75 years and we control less than 8% of the total market share in the financial sector. By forming the SCCUA I wanted to encourage credit unions to work with, not against, each other and openly share ideas and collaborate.
Henry Ford once said, "Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." From our humble beginning 10 years ago, 50 credit unions are proud to call themselves SCCUA members.
My hope is that the forum the SCCUA provides inspires the members and partners to continue working together for many years to come and that it inspires other credit unions to collaborate. As Henry Ford said, "working together is success" and I feel that working together we can secure not only the future of our individual credit unions but the Credit Union movement as a whole.
Sincerely,
Jon Hernandez