00:00Hi, I'm Bretta Nath, Vice President of Events and Community at Housing Wire. I'm super excited to be
00:12at the ACUMA Conference. The theme of the event is Making Your Mark, and I'm sitting down with
00:17Julie Bowering. She is Senior Vice President of Lending at A Plus Federal Credit Union. So, I mean,
00:23just to start, first off, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having me. One area that I think
00:28would be useful for our audience is kind of first just getting them used to learning who you are.
00:34Can you just lightly touch on your journey, your involvement with ACUMA to help set the foundation
00:39of our conversation? Absolutely. So, I've been in financial services for over 30 years, so I'm
00:45dating myself a little bit. But I've been proud to be part of the credit union movement since the end
00:50of 2013. So, I currently serve as the Senior Vice President of Lending at A Plus Federal Credit Union,
00:56as you said, in Austin, Texas. I have been engaged and a part of ACUMA since 2014. Amazing. So, that's
01:05when I attended my first annual conference. My Chief Lending Officer at the time couldn't attend,
01:10so I attended in his place. And then I went back and said, you know what, I think I should be going
01:14every year as the Vice President of Mortgage at the credit union I was at at the time.
01:20That, I mean, that wealth of knowledge in this space is a great reason why you're on that board,
01:24but also lets you speak to something that I've noticed in attending this event is how much people
01:30reference belonging and community and the power of coming together. That seems so ingrained in the
01:36credit union space. Can you kind of dive into whether it's just even coming to this event, but also
01:41that core almost value that I'm saying, value proposition in the credit union space? Why is belonging
01:47being so important? I'll tell you what, there's so much power in being part of the credit union movement
01:55and really serving members. And when I think about all of the peers and connections I've been able to
02:02make, and friends, honestly, over the course of the last nine years, all just really focused on what we
02:08can do to help serve members, especially when it comes to achieving home ownership, or even just putting
02:13them in a better financial position when it comes to, you know, their current mortgage. And so there's
02:19so many resources and tools and just topics that are just relevant and important to us as credit union
02:28leaders, trying to do the very best that we can to help serve our members when it comes to mortgage
02:33lending. Yep. Mortgage lending is the unique part of this conference. It's not just credit unions.
02:38You oversee lending. Mortgage is the backbone of, I think, a lot of, you know, it's the, you said
02:45earlier, achieving home ownership. It's the American dream. Can you touch on why mortgage lending is still
02:51so important to have at a credit union? I sure can. So, you know, when members are engaged and working
03:00with a credit union, they have put trust and faith in us when it comes to their finances, whether it's
03:05their checking, savings, auto loans, personal loans, right? Why wouldn't we help them with their
03:10mortgage as well? There's so much trust and knowledge and experience that an individual needs
03:17to have in order to educate our members on the home ownership process and the financing process.
03:23So we, I feel like we have tremendous opportunity. I know at A-plus, we are excited and thrilled about
03:31our future state when it comes to providing just a robust product set and services and solutions for
03:39our members. And when I think about my peers all across the country that are here this week,
03:44they're invested in, you know, coming away with tips and best practices and tapping into the network
03:51here in order to go back and continue to find ways to grow their mortgage program and help more members.
03:57Because if we don't do it, they're going to go somewhere else. Yeah. And they do. It's such a
04:01great call out. And even though you guys have this full picture of them, what would you want the real
04:06estate, the realtor, real estate agent, realtor to know about that dynamic? Yes. So I think realtors
04:13should never be afraid or hesitant to work with a credit union. Yeah. There sometimes has been a
04:18stigma in the past, like, oh, credit unions, sure they do mortgage, but you know, an IMB or a bank may have
04:25more knowledge and expertise when it comes to credit union. Not true. I think when I look at my
04:31peers and all of the credit unions that are, again, invested in mortgage lending, I think we have the
04:37knowledge and expertise to be able to serve our members well and build relationships with realtors.
04:43Not only are realtors important to our business and for our members, but they have the opportunity
04:49to help us bring in new members to the credit union, but also existing members as well. Yeah. And one of
04:55the best kept secrets out there is many of our credit unions, everyone's working together as one
05:00team in a centralized location. So typically with a larger IMB or even a bank, you may have your
05:08processors and underwriters and closers in a different city or even a different state. Yeah. The one thing I
05:13love about being in the credit union is the ability to foster that one team culture and environment.
05:19Everyone's invested. Everyone knows that there's a member that needs to close on that loan on time
05:26or early, honestly. And we need to make it as smooth and easy for all parties involved. So that almost goes
05:33back to the first question I asked, which shows how even at this event, community and people are at the
05:37center. And that seems like through what you're saying, it goes back to the borrower. An extra element
05:42that comes into play with credit unions is the educational element. Can you kind of talk about
05:48how education also is an element that helps borrowers, helps you guys serve them? So that's
05:54a great question. I was actually just sitting in general session this morning and one of the
05:59panelists said, you know, it's not really about selling a mortgage to a member or to a potential
06:06client or new member. It's really about education. Honestly, we're talking, you know, the average first
06:12time home buyer age is 38. I just heard that this morning here. Right. And so when we think about
06:18that and we think about all of the things right now, challenges with homeownership from an affordability
06:24perspective, and honestly, just being able to help members navigate the home financing process.
06:31They need us right now more than ever with our knowledge and our expertise to be able to educate
06:37them and really walk with them through the journey from origination all the way through to closing and
06:44getting those keys to their new home. Yeah. It's a tremendous responsibility. Yeah. When one, I think
06:49through the theme of your answers, you can tell that you guys don't take lightly. You guys are focused
06:53on and going back to that theme of putting the person at the center. What are your final closing
06:57thoughts that you want to know to our audience? I mean, the credit union space is here. Mortgage is
07:01clearly a key element. What has you excited about not only 2026, but looking past that when it comes to
07:07ACUMA, credit union, what you're doing in this space? I'll tell you what, Brenna, the key word
07:11for me is opportunity. I talk about it all the time at A+. We have tremendous opportunity to help
07:17even more members than we currently are today with the homeownership process and journey, as well as
07:24just putting them in a better financial position overall when we think about financial wellness and
07:29coming here to ACUMA and being able to really just spend a couple of days, again, gaining knowledge
07:35and experience hearing awesome panelists and speakers about relevant topics that will continue
07:41to help cultivate us and push us into the future when it comes to growing market share and helping
07:48more members with mortgage lending. That has me excited. I appreciate you unpacking so much,
07:53not in the credit union space, but what ACUMA is doing, what we can do in mortgage lending.
07:57So thank you so much, Julie. Thank you.
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