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Michelle Dwyer, president and CEO, Franklin First Federal Credit Union
Michelle Dwyer
President and CEO, Franklin First Federal Credit Union
Age: 38
Industry Experience: 13 years
Michelle Dwyer leads a small credit union in Greenfield, but for the next two years, she will have a big role in the credit union industry. The president and CEO of Franklin First Federal Credit Union, Dwyer was one of eight people from across the United States named last month to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Credit Union Advisory Council.
Dwyer started her credit union career 13 years ago when she applied through a job placement program for a temporary teller position at Franklin First. Training, mentorship and opportunities to attend national conferences helped her advance in the organization, Dwyer said, and learn to be a leader in the credit union industry. She took over as president and CEO in 2016. Franklin First has one branch and about $72 million in assets.
Q: How did the opportunity to be on the CFPB’s Credit Union Advisory Council come about?
A: They put out a call for applications, and that application came my way through a local district attorney who I had been doing a financial education program with. She sent it to me and thought it would be a great opportunity for us in this area to get our voices heard. So I applied and went through that whole process and, thankfully, they picked me.
Q: What does the council do?
A: It’s a two-year commitment. My job is to advise and consult with the bureau on any of the consumer financial issues that may relate to credit unions or community banks. It’s strictly advisory, so we’re reviewing anything that they might be thinking about putting in place or taking away and how that would – from the credit union viewpoint – affect the consumer.
Putting in new laws and regulations can be meant as a protection, but in some cases, it can also be a deterrent or a roadblock for some consumers. Being able to provide those perspectives on what makes things difficult or what makes things easy, that is my goal.
Q: What are some concerns facing consumers in Franklin County right now?
A: COVID. From my perspective, when we went through the Great Recession, that hit Franklin County about two years after it hit everybody else, and we came out of it about two years after everybody else. COVID seemed to arrive here a month or two later than the devastation that hit the entire country, so it’s still a problem as far job losses and unemployment and people really struggling to figure out how they’re going to pay their loans or mortgages. That’s everybody’s main focus right now.
As far as the bigger picture, there are concerns around having access to loans and credit in a situation where somebody might not have great credit or might not have the financial education to understand what they’re getting into. That’s a huge issue in Western Mass. and probably a lot of more rural, low-income areas where there just aren’t the resources, programs and access to financial education.
Q: What are some of the challenges Franklin First faces as a small credit union?
A: Respect [laughs]. We do have to really be much louder with our voice, especially in dealing with vendors and service providers, so that we can provide services to our members. I think a lot of times when we’re not somebody that’s bringing in a lot of money to a vendor – because we are so small and our needs are considerably less than a $1 billion or $500 million credit union – that we get lost in the shuffle every once in a while.
Q: What are some advantages to remaining a small credit union?
A: Regulatory-wise, we certainly do get benefits out of remaining small. We want to make sure that we’re doing everything correctly, but there’s a lot of regulatory paperwork and reporting that we don’t have to do because we are small and, honestly, we wouldn’t have staff to do it. So that’s a benefit.
Also, it’s really that focus on community. Once you get to be bigger and you have to focus on staffing and your branches and all of your operational needs, you really get pulled away from knowing your members in your community and knowing exactly what they need. And the last thing I want to do is start operating like a big bank. We’re very focused on making sure that we are Franklin County specific.
Q: How does Franklin First keep up with technology?
A: We had to do a lot of work initially in the past couple of years to catch up – a lot of making sacrifices in certain areas to make sure we had the budget to do it. It’s also about being forward-thinking and understanding what is coming up, where we need to be, and trying to be there at the same time, if not before, some of the other larger institutions. I think that is where our mindset is now to make sure that we are not getting behind.
We did great through COVID because we were set up to do e-sign and online banking and mobile banking and remote deposit capture. Because of that, we weren’t really impacted the way that we could have been. If it was three years ago, we would have had a really, really difficult time.
Q: What has your experience been like as a female president and CEO?
A: It’s certainly been mixed. I have run into several people in different credit unions who have been overwhelmingly gracious in sharing information and being helpful and making sure that I’m supported, and that has been fantastic. Then there are other situations where you walk into a conference, and you’re one of two women in a breakout session and almost always the youngest. It’s more on me as far as being intimidated or having a little bit of impostor syndrome, but in some sense, you do almost get a little bit looked over just because it is a very male-dominated industry; it always has been. The trend is starting to turn now, but it throws you back a little bit when you walk into a room of all men.
Dwyer’s Five Favorite Western Massachusetts Hiking Trails
- Robert Frost Trail on Mt. Toby, Sunderland
- Hermit’s Castle Trail, Erving
- Grace, Warwick
- Sachem Head, Greenfield
- Seven Sisters Trail, Skinner State Park, Hadley
