USA: Leadership changes at the National Cooperative Bank

NCB was set up in 1978 ago to provide services for co-operatives and credit unions

The US National Cooperative Bank (NCB) has elected Patrick Jury as chair with a mandate to “focus on being a champion for co-ops and economic development”.

Jury has been involved in the US credit union sector for 30 years. He is president of Member Enterprise, a credit union service organisation and has served as CEO of Iowa Credit Union League.

“The shared values of credit unions and NCB made it a perfect fit for our credit union members at a time when they needed competitive correspondent banking services,” he said. “NCB and credit unions are mission-driven financial institutions with similar cultures and vision. I am honoured to have served on NCB’s board over the last six years and as its current chairman.”

NCB, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, was set up 40 years ago to provide services for co-ops and credit unions, as their main provider of wholesale depository and correspondent banking services.

“Co-op Principle 6 – Cooperation Among Cooperatives is critical for communities and co-op organisations to be successful,” said Jury. “NCB and credit unions, working together, can have a greater impact nationwide. I look forward to the year ahead living our aligned mission.”

 “We are proud to have Pat serve as chair for NCB,” said CEO Casey Fannon. “His credit union experience and knowledge of NCB will be instrumental in helping us to stay abreast of the needs of credit unions and the product offerings we can provide to best serve their needs.”

NCB also announced the appointment of Alan Goldblatt as executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Goldblatt, who has over 25 years of corporate finance, treasury, and capital markets experience, joins NCB from Farmer Mac where, as vice president and treasurer, he led the teams in charge of debt funding, liquidity investments, asset and liability management, and cash management.

He said: “I’ve admired NCB’s community-driven mission and look forward to working with NCB’s talented leadership team in building upon NCB’s financial success.”

“We are very excited to welcome Alan to NCB”, said Casey Fannon, NCB president and CEO. “His extensive leadership background in treasury and finance combined with his penchant for mission-focused banking make Alan a great fit to lead NCB into the future as its CFO.”

NCB has also recently released the latest data on its high school financial education course. Delivered in partnership with EVERFI, the programme engaged more than 1,945 students across Highland and Brown County, Ohio.

Specifically, in 2021-2022 the programme helped 256 students across four schools learn about managing financial tasks and increase their assessment scores by 69%. It delivered 877 hours of learning over the course of the year.

“I like that the course went into depth on everything it was teaching me, like how to set up and manage a savings account, a checking account and how to manage your credit and the debts you owe,” one student told NCB. “I really liked how it actually put you in different situations to teach you how to act or react.”

“Now is such a critical time for youth to gain financial education to help prepare them for the future,” said Jocelyn Leeth, NCB assistant branch manager. “NCB is happy to partner with EVERFI to offer this financial education programme, along with NCB’s digital adult financial education programme, to help our community achieve financial capability.”

As part of the scheme, NCB also offers a US$1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior at each high school that participates in the program and a technology grant to the school with the highest percentage of students completing the programme each year.