On-line review of my last banking job

I worked for Purina Credit Union for several years before the then CEO orchestrated the acquisition of PCU by what was then American Eagle Credit Union. As PCU employees, we were grandfathered into the new organization. Fortunately, we retained our salary levels and benefits. Prior to our arrivals, PCU employees were interviewed so that we would be assigned roles within AECU. I was assigned to the Indirect Lending department where sales finance contracts were purchased from auto dealerships in MO, GA, FL and TX. I found it curious that AECU had a practice of purchasing loan contracts between dealerships and borrowers where the borrowers were not eligible for actual credit union membership. I questioned this practice and was told by the then VP of the Indirect Lending that this was not common knowledge and that no regulator had questioned the practice to that date. In effect, the credit union was making loans to individuals who it knew in advance were not members and who could not qualify for membership. The spread (loan contract rate over prevailing deposit rates paid to members of the credit union for their savings) was incredible. The terms under which dealers could sell their paper to the credit union were overly generous. The borrowers buying the automobiles were often charged more than the actual MSRP and were often allowed to finance up to the $6,000 worth of “add-on’s” such as warranties, GAP insurance, credit life insurances, nitrogen in the tires, etc., etc. Many of the applications submitted to the credit union for “underwriting” were not well scrutinized and often, information obtained solely from credit reports was the basis for approval or denial. Strangely, many of the applicant/borrowers were “managers, VP’s, big wigs” for their employers and always making nearly 100 g’s per year and always had over 5 years of employment history according to the car dealers’ applications. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not to investigate the claims made if the applicants’ credit scores were beyond certain thresholds. The “supervisor” / “Sr. Underwriter” of the department and the department’s “Manager” literally took me into a conference room and gave me a good scolding for having the audacity to research a potential borrower’s employment history as part of my underwriting function. I was told by the “Sr. Underwriter” that the automobile dealers were in effect “our members” and that our job was to “buy contracts” (her words, not my own). That same “supervisor” has since been promoted. By her own admission in subsequent conversations, she did not know what a “breach of contract lawsuit” was even after 15 plus years of employment as a loan underwriter (my own unspoken thought at the time was that I was pretty sure she knew what a paternity lawsuit was given her personal experiences but that’s a different subject altogether). I warned the VP of the department that they were treading on thin ice and that many of the dealers, especially the ones located in TX, were selling them “bad paper” and that the whole experiment was likely to blow up in their faces – never mind that they were purchasing loans for people that they knew could not join the credit union as members. In my view, it was a ticking time bomb. Not surprisingly, losses became high in certain segments and at one point the entire TX market was abandoned. I was reassigned to the centralized lending group where a high level VP had set up a single group to decision the consumer and Visa loan applications of all of the branches. Branches are staffed with application takers/salespeople who are incentivized to “sell products” on their approved loans. Underwriters are expected to stare at a computer screen 8 hours per day and have their decisions questioned by gel haired, bedazzled jean wearing, Axe body spray sporting, weekend alcoholic Cardinals fans that are looking to score their bonuses so that they can afford some chrome wheels on their Honda or a Louis Vuitton handbag. The credit union higher ups like this arrangement because they don’t have to do the actual work of making sure their branches are staffed by intelligent, forward thinking individuals who can make reasonable judgments where loan applications are concerned. They can focus on staffing branches with personable salespeople. The fireworks ensue. I performed that job for a little more than 2 years as I closed in on the minimum retirement age. Hands down, it was the worst job that I ever had in nearly 30 years of banking/lending. I knew from the first year of my arrival at AECU that I was in the wrong place. I remember seeing a canary yellow convertible Prowler in the employee parking lot at the spots reserved for the credit unions’ higher ups and it was sporting the vanity plate “ROCSTAR” and thinking, “What a player – I need to get out of this place”. When PCU was absorbed by AECU, I remember thinking, “I hope that we are not treated like red-headed stepchildren” but that is what happened in my case. My own “manager” at the time resented my grandfathered pay level and vacation time accrual rate – in a conversation that I had with her, she condescendingly implied that I was not worth what I was being paid. My thought at the time was, “After watching this crew in action, I would not do this job for anything less than I am currently making”. I spoke with Human Resources about the possibility of moving to another department but I was told that in doing so, I would forfeit my salary level and would be paid at the level that the job dictated within their scale. It was a “Catch 22”. The Covid-19 Fun Bucks are running out and the whacky eviction moratoriums and foreclosure forbearance programs are all but over. Soon, consumers will have to start repaying their student loans and actually coughing up real money to keep a roof over their heads. Together Credit Union (I don’t think the new name plays well with many of their members judging from some of their reviews) will see how well a lot of their carefully underwritten loan decisions fare in the upcoming months and years. On a side note, if your politics are on the conservative or independent side of the fence, even moderately, keep your opinions to yourself if you work within TCU. You will not find many like minded people in some departments. I began my lending career as a collector at Manufacturers Hanover Consumer Services many years ago. We were sold by the bank to Credit Thrift and absorbed by that organization. As a grandfathered employee, I was better treated. I moved to credit union work after 5 years of working for consumer finance companies. PCU was different. During my employment there, TCU seemed more like a finance company than a credit union. The old finance companies (Norwest, Credit Thrift, American General) had a position called “CSR” – in most cases, these were the ladies in the office who would greet the customers, take applications, apply for perfected titles and administer the forced placed insurance premiums on borrowers who neglected to pay for their regular car insurance bills. Many of the people in positions of power at TCU seemed to me to be like the old CSR’s who went to university (on-line or brick and mortar) to get their degrees in one type or another of social or gender studies.