Our Voice Must Match Our Mission

There is a strong mortgage experience that credit unions can share.

Every day, credit unions throughout the country assist their members in buying the home of their dreams and in dealing with some of the most important financial decisions of their lives. Such situations are not simply transactions; they are milestones that can change a person’s life.

The way credit unions behave is different in those situations. We deal with communities that bigger institutions might ignore. The relationships that we build go well beyond the point at which a transaction is completed. Since our mission starts with the member, not the market, we can offer a point of view on mortgage lending that is both unique and necessary.

Having an important story does not mean that it will be heard.

A System Shaped Beyond the Closing Table

The future of mortgage lending is not only set within branches, underwriting departments, and servicing centers; it is instead formed each day by legislation, regulation, agency guidance, industry standards, and public policy.

The effect of those decisions is to determine which products credit unions can offer, the costs of originating and servicing loans, the criteria used to qualify members, and the credit unions’ capacity to compete in an increasingly complex market.

It is too common for such decisions to be made without a full understanding of how credit unions function or of the effects that seemingly technical policy changes have on our members, our communities, and the institutions that serve them.

That gap has actual consequences.

Advocacy Is Part of the Mission

Although advocacy is at times seen as separate from the actual work of assisting members, it is, in fact, an extension of that work.

By helping policymakers to understand the effects of their decisions, we are promoting the interests of the members who depend on us and discharging the fiduciary duties we have as guardians of our members’ financial well-being. By working to maintain access to responsible and affordable mortgage lending, we contribute to the strengthening of the communities we serve. And by supporting credit unions’ ability to compete, innovate, and grow, we help protect the cooperative model itself.

Advocacy does not represent a departure from our mission; it is rather a means by which we achieve it.

A Changing Environment Requires Action

The fact is that credit unions enjoy the support of powerful state and national organizations that speak up for them, and this work is of great value; ACUMA places great importance on these partnerships. Our intention is not to repeat what these organizations are doing. Having become increasingly complex, increasingly competitive, and increasingly important, mortgage lending has made it impossible for ACUMA to remain merely an observer.

ACUMA was set up to bring credit union mortgage professionals together; we provide education, facilitate connections, collaborate, and help our members become stronger lenders. Taking on a more active role in advocacy is a natural development of that mission.

Starting in 2027, ACUMA will play a more active role in discussions shaping the future of credit union mortgage lending.

What “Proactive” Means

Being proactive doesn’t mean commenting on every issue or responding publicly to every development; it simply means being the first to act, acting with greater intention, and having a better grasp of the realities that credit union mortgage lenders are facing.

This involves detecting difficulties earlier, listening to members’ experiences within their own institutions and local markets, and using those insights in policy debates while there is still an opportunity to influence outcomes, rather than just reacting to them. It also means that our members’ views should be taken into account before any decisions are finally made.

What we are doing is a change in our posture, not a change in our purpose.

A Focused, Practical Role

The role of ACUMA will stay focused and practical.

Policymakers can be linked with experts who have firsthand knowledge of the operational and member effects of mortgage policy and can offer practical views on how proposed rules, requirements, and industry standards impact credit unions of different sizes, business models, and markets.

We will be able to collect members’ views, identify common themes, and explain them clearly and credibly. Just as important, we can help members to understand the issues they are facing and enable them to realize when their opinions can have a real impact.

Experience Is Powerful Evidence

The most effective form of advocacy is based on real-world experience.

While statistics can show a trend, they cannot fully clarify what that trend means for a borrower applying for a mortgage or for a credit union seeking to keep affordable lending available. A regulation might seem reasonable in theory, but people who are actually dealing with such situations can explain how it affects the member experience, raises costs, limits access, or leads to unexpected consequences.

Those insights go beyond being just anecdotes; they are evidence.

ACUMA is in a unique position to assist in gathering, organizing, and developing that expertise.

Partnership Is Necessary

This item will not occur on its own.

ACUMA will continue working closely with the organizations that represent credit unions at both the state and national levels and will seek opportunities to provide its mortgage-specific expertise, support common priorities, and help strengthen the overall voice of the credit union movement.

We will also continue developing our relationships across the wider housing and mortgage sector, since many of the problems encountered by credit unions are part of the broader national discussion concerning affordability, access, regulation, technology, and the future of homeownership.

Member Participation Will Shape the Future

Most important of all, this effort is based on the members of ACUMA.

ACUMA can help carry on conversations, organize information, and strengthen the collective voice. Yet we cannot begin to grasp the difficulties you, as mortgage professionals at credit unions, face daily in serving your members; effective advocacy starts with you.

We have to work out what you are seeing, identify which policies set up unnecessary difficulties, determine what changes would enable you to better serve your members, and find out where the credit union’s point of view is missing from the discussion.

As ACUMA grows its advocacy activities, member input will be at the heart of determining our priorities and methods. Through our first Advocacy Day in March 2027, as well as surveys, listening sessions, roundtable discussions, and personal outreach, we will create opportunities for members to share their experiences and help us determine where our combined voice can make the greatest difference.

The effort will be deliberate, careful, and based on what members tell us is most important. We will continue to identify where ACUMA can provide the greatest value, where our expertise is most needed, and how we can best assist the wider credit union advocacy community. Our approach will be improved over time in light of what is found to be most useful to members and most effective for the industry.

Although not all members will participate in the same way, all viewpoints will improve our combined voice; our aim will not change.

Matching Voice to Mission

The way mortgage lending develops will be determined by the people who participate, share their experiences, and engage in the discussion. Credit unions have something unique to contribute, based not on market share or quarterly profits but on assisting people to achieve homeownership and financial well-being.

We are committed to ensuring that diverse perspectives are included in the debates shaping the future of our industry, and we hope you will take part in this effort.

It is time for our voice to match our mission.

The information reported in this document, financial and otherwise, should not be construed as either legal or investment advice, nor does it represent the views of ACUMA, its Board of Directors, its staff or its members. The author presents information current at the time of publication and is designed to educate ACUMA members and others interested in the credit union mortgage lending industry.