We’re at the conference’s halfway point, and I’ve heard more mention of serving members of modest means than any other topic. I don’t think it’s just the NCUA’s data collection that’s fueling the conversation, either.

A larger fight against payday lenders is taking place in many state legislatures, the Hispanic population in the US is growing, and initiatives are gaining momentum within the industry like the Texas Credit Union League’s Juntos Avenzamos and Filene’s REAL Solutions project (disclosure: Filene is a Trabian client).

I bring up Filene because I had the opportunity to sit in on Lois Kitsch’s presentation today on “Serving Members of Modest Means.” Lois is their Director of Field Projects, by the way.

During Lois’s presentation, combating payday lenders and check cashing outlets was a major theme, as was reaching out to immigrants. She pointed out that the average age of Hispanics in the US is 26 years old (where the average CU member age is around 47), and that Hispanics are largely unbanked. I found it particularly interesting that a quarter of Bank of America’s new accounts last year were opened by Hispanics.

Also, a good credit union example of what’s on the horizon in serving members of modest means (including low income consumers, Hispanics and other immigrants, young adults, and people with bad/no credit) comes from Wright-Patt Credit Union and the payday lending CUSO they’re about to launch, which was discussed as part of a roundtable session that Lois also led.

Wright-Patt started their program five years ago after a public meeting was held to combat payday lenders in their community. Doug Fecher, Wright-Patt’s CEO, spoke of a young woman at this meeting who spoke up on behalf of the payday lenders, saying, “If you get rid of payday lenders, I’ll have to go back to the loan sharks.” When she was asked by the moderator if she could use a credit union instead, she responded, “They’re just like the banks. They won’t make those loans.”

Ouch. At least there are credit unions who have responded to the challenge, and Wright-Patt is one of them. Wright-Patt and eight other credit unions in the Dayton area are offering a product at a very reasonable 18% APR (compare that to the 300% APR and upward that many payday lenders charge), and they’re launching a CUSO very soon (in a matter of weeks) to help other credit unions serve their communities with this product, too.

One of Doug’s best points was this: credit unions started out as payday lenders, and along the way CUs got away from providing that service – but the need never went away, and predatory for-profit lenders stepped up to fill the void. Speaking philosophically, credit unions should help protect the underserved from predatory lending by going back to offering a better solution. Keep your eyes open for the launch of this CUSO, and expect to hear a louder buzz in the industry about serving the modest means issue even beyond the release of the NCUA data later this year.