Being Remarkable with Mark Meyer

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Episode Transcript

Host: Welcome to 2026, and welcome back to the Filene Fill-In.

Over the past year, we’ve been having a lot of conversations inside Filene and across the credit union movement about how research shows up in practice, not just as reports or frameworks, but as ideas credit unions can actually grapple with in real time as they navigate disruption, growth, and increasing complexity. That’s part of what brought us back to the podcast.

The Filene Fill-In isn’t new, but it is evolving, becoming more tightly connected to the research coming out of Filene and more intentionally centered on the leaders who are shaping where the movement goes next. Today’s conversation is a great example of that shift.

In this episode, Filene CEO Mark Meyer sits down with our Executive Vice President, Christie Kimbell, to reflect on what we’ve been hearing from credit unions over the past year, what’s changed, what’s stayed stubbornly hard, and what those signals are telling us about the road ahead. You’ll hear them talk about leadership pressure, cultural alignment, and the growing gap between strategy and execution, especially as credit unions wrestle with digital expectations, member trust, and the pace of change. They also dig into how those realities are shaping Filene’s research agenda and priorities as we head into 2026.

A key thread running through the conversation is Filene’s theme for the year ahead, Remarkable. Not as a tagline, but as a reflection of how credit unions already show up for members, and how that distinctiveness can become a clearer, more intentional foundation for strategy, culture, and design.

So with that, let’s get into it. Here’s Christie and Mark.

Christie Kimbell: Hi, Mark.

Mark Meyer: Hello, Christie Kimbell.

CK: I’m excited to be here. It’s almost the last day of the year. Happy New Year. I’m really excited about our conversation today.

We’re going to be talking about what’s ahead in 2026, but before we get there, I’d like to reflect a little bit on 2025. I recently overheard a conversation between two credit union CEOs, and one CEO said to the other, “Who would want to be a CEO right now?”

I think this sentiment really reflects the complexity of leadership right now. You work with CEOs every day, and as a CEO yourself, when you think about 2025 and you hear a statement like this, what are your reflections?

MM: When you think about leadership and how difficult it is to lead right now, many things pop in, but there are three key things I want to focus on for the purposes of this conversation.

Number one is pace. Number two is courage. Number three is alignment.

If you look at pace, one of the challenges in leadership right now is how leaders are pulled in so many different directions at once, trying to modernize, differentiate, and yet stay true to values, all with limited capacity. That pace is really impacting leadership and what it means to be a leader.

The second piece is courage. Leadership is a very lonely job. CEOs carry enormous responsibility. They’re looking for places to think out loud, where they can test ideas and learn without feeling like they have to have all the answers. The courage required to lead today is at a very different dimension than in previous chapters of financial services evolution and leading financial services.

The third is alignment. With all the pressures of pace and courage, the job of a leader includes keeping your talent, your executive teams, and your colleagues focused on strategy and execution simultaneously. That includes aligning boards of directors, groups of well-intentioned volunteers, not to mention bringing regulators along to understand what you’re trying to do.

So when you hear comments about how hard it is to be a leader, pace is part of it, but the muscle of courage and the driver of alignment is what’s behind those challenges. From my perspective.

CK: I love those. And I think, you know, we did some research with Valera that looked at one of the big challenges for CEOs is they feel pretty confident about their strategy, but how well they can execute and implement it. And alignment was one of those key factors. And those that are successfully executing on their strategies, how critical that alignment is to manage.

So in 2025, we launched two new centers. We launched Design for Digital and Member Well-Being. From your perspective, what made those the go-to topics?

MM: Well, when you look at the topic of Design for Digital, our tech stacks are evolving, but how to use those tech stacks, and the culture, and aligning people. So this gets back to the MBA-speak of, you know, people, process, technology. There’s been a lot of focus on technology, less focus on how to design the organization, how to align people, how to drive culture to utilize the technology effectively. And so I think Design for Digital, we’re all wrestling with the trade-offs of which tech stacks to invest in. And ultimately, you know, while it does matter, what matters more is how you’re aligning the people and the culture. So I think it’s the right time to be having these conversations around not just what tech stack you’re purchasing or investing in, but how you’re investing in the people, and driving alignment, and the org structure and the culture to utilize the tech that you’re purchasing.

Member well-being, you know, this is a timeless topic. We’re not just talking financial well-being. You know, if you look at this beautiful journey of humanity that we’re all on, it’s a unique time, yet people with access to all of the tools and information, people are feeling more isolated than ever. Our physical well-being has opportunities to improve. We’re moving less. We’re interacting with people less. The whole notion of wellness, not just our economic wellness, but our overall well-being as human beings.

Really, credit unions stand in the center of an ecosystem to help create opportunities for us to be better humans. And I think what’s the driver of the credit union model is this notion of opportunity for all. When Ed Filene invested and created and brought the credit union model to the U.S. financial system, the credit union self-help model can be a terrific instrument to supplement what government can’t do, what communities can’t do, but what we collectively as humans and individuals can do, to make our communities stronger, to make ourselves stronger and better. 

So I just think these topics are so, so timely for where we stand in the evolution of humanity on how we’re utilizing tech and ultimately how to optimize to become better humans as well, for our overall wellness.

CK: Yeah, I think, you know, this idea when you were talking about digital experience, we had been in the digital experience mode, right? And so when you talk about the people and the process and the technology, the idea that it’s not just the experience, it’s digital organizations. And I think, you know, we’re taking the higher-level view of what does that actually mean? And then the same with member well-being, as we realize financial well-being has such a tremendous impact on mental, social, emotional relationships. And so when we think about credit unions and the progress that they’re making in these areas, we are seeing traction. We are seeing real evolution and transformation in how the organizations are evolving and how they’re helping their members.

Yet one of the things that we’re seeing as we think about 2026 is that credit unions aren’t always effective at getting these messages out, right? They’re making the changes and they’re having this transformation, but they’re not always effectively communicating that. And that idea, the idea of, you know, how do we tell the story in a way that people remember it and know what it means, was the inspiration for our theme, our 2026 theme, Remarkable.

So, Mark, from your perspective, what does remarkable mean to you and for credit unions?

MM: Well, you know, credit unions are making a big darn difference. And to your point, I don’t know that we are effective storytellers.

A recent example of that would be, in the longest in the history of the U.S. government, we had the longest shutdown ever. And many credit unions who have federal employees in their field of membership, those credit unions recognize those paychecks as though they were coming in, even though they were not coming in.

And that was a great opportunity to tell and shout from the mountaintops: we’re doing something remarkable in a time when others are hurting. And, you know, it’s great we did it quietly, and it’s great that we helped those families and those hardworking Americans. They know it, but it’s an opportunity for policymakers, for other financial institutions, to understand the power of this self-help model.

You know, you look at the Center of Excellence on well-being. Most other financial institutions wouldn’t take the time to say, “How do we make people holistically better?”

And so, you know, being remarkable is not necessarily about being flashy. It’s about being relevant in our members’ lives when it matters most.

And, you know, it’s when design and digital and experiences and member well-being come together in ways that feel intuitive, trusted, and unmistakably values-driven.

And so I’m so proud to be a part of a community of credit unions that I do think are remarkable, and look forward to exploring that together in this theme of 2026 here at Filene, on really pushing others to understand this remarkable community outside of our credit union cul-de-sac and out on the autobahn.

CK: I love that. And as we go into 2026, you know, we’re thinking about how Filene can support credit unions on that journey.

You talk about the pace, right? And I think what pace adds is pressure, because if you have time, if you have capacity, then you have enough bandwidth that you can process those decisions. But the pace that we’re at right now makes it really difficult.

And I think that’s where Filene can be a partner, to help you accelerate and add capacity to your team. So when you think about where do credit unions have the biggest opportunity to grow over the next year, you know, 12 to 18 months, how are you positioning Filene and our outputs to be able to support that?

MM: Well, I think, you know, over the next 12 to 18 months, we have a chance to help credit unions sharpen what truly differentiates them, rather than trying to just match what other financial institutions are doing, feature for feature.

Filene’s role is really to help leaders focus, to test, and to learn, so growth is intentional and rooted in what members actually value.

And so when you think of whether it’s the outputs from our six Centers of Excellence that will be operational in 2026, or the tests that we’re running in our FiLab, those go hand in hand to help credit unions sharpen that focus, accelerate implementation, to recognize the power of opportunity costs, to do more with less.

And that’s what is going to be a challenge, but Filenes here to help scale those trade-offs and those decisions that credit union leaders are faced with day in and day out, to help the industry move along more effectively.

CK: Yeah. So one thing, you know, we have our Centers of Excellence, which are longitudinal centers. So we pick a topic, we do the research over three years, but sometimes the world is not moving always on a three-year timeline. And so there’s topics that come up suddenly, or maybe they’ve always been there, but now there’s a sudden emphasis that needs to be addressed.

Can you share in 2025 where something emerged like that, where credit unions’ interest or urgency pushed Filene’s work either faster down a path or put us in a new direction?

MM: I think this is easily identified when we talk about the innovation set of our portfolio on FiLab. We initially planned for a limited set of pilots, you know, the typical number is closer to five pilots, but the level of interest from the credit union community, the number of fintechs that are partnering with credit unions, made it clear there was real momentum around experimentation and incubation. So we expanded the number of pilots from five to seven that we were conducting this year. This was less about capacity, more about listening to the signal that leaders were ready to test and learn together. So, you know, that’s one example where we did a little bit of Filene yoga.

You know, I can think of our Center of Excellence on governance and listening to the market, where we’ve seen a very public shift in the number of mergers and consolidation, and shifting the portfolio, or the focus in that Center of Excellence on leadership strategy and governance, to explore what it takes to have a successful merger from a governance standpoint. And Dr. Hillman being very swift and nimble, we call it snimble at Filene, to modify the portfolio to achieve those objectives, I think, is a great example of just being very adaptive and listening to the market, whether it’s research or the innovation example I gave earlier.

CK: Yeah. Another example, Mark, I think the fintechs are perfect in FiLab and the testing. And, you know, just another thing that I’m really excited about is, you know, this is our fourth year of testing. You know, in the first three years, we did 17 tests combined with 81 testers. This year, with the seven tests that we’re focused on, we have 55 commitments already of credit unions that are wanting and willing to test. And so that, you know, again, I just keep going back to what you said at the beginning of the conversation about pace, alignment, courage. You know, the thing that the testing enables is, first of all, it allows you to do rapid experimentation. It creates alignment because you have multiple credit unions testing at the same time, which gives you the courage to say, “Yes, we should move forward,” or really the courage to say no. And I think sometimes saying no is harder than saying yes, and having that data set helps.

The other place where I really saw credit union impact on our decision and our pace is, we’ve always been planning for like the last six months to launch our new center, the Payments Center, that’s happening in January.

But this talk with the genius act around stable coins, there was a sense of urgency that we realized pretty quickly that, hey, we need to have a deeper conversation. We’re hearing all the kinds of things happening across the market, but where is one place where we could curate that and credit unions could understand what was on the forefront. And so when we think about this new center, how does the All Things Payments Center stand out within the broader story of Filene’s research?

MM: Well, All Things Payments really stands out because it sits at the intersection of daily member experience and long-term strategic relevance. Payments are where trust, technology, and expectations all collide. This center, I think, will expand Filene’s research story by focusing on what you can call invisible moments that shape how members judge whether the credit union is truly remarkable or not.

I do think the Payments Center is not to be underestimated because I worry deeply. One of my top concerns as we navigate into the future is disintermediation and the slow evaporation of deposits through the broad array of ways people move money today. So I think this is a very timely topic, a very critical topic, as payments sit at the center of the deposit model.

CK: Yeah. And I think when we think about this idea of remarkable again, which is what is the differentiation, when things are changing really quickly, there’s challenges and there’s also opportunities.

So how do you believe that innovation and payments will really help credit unions differentiate, not just operationally, but in the eyes of members?

MM: Well, members don’t experience payments as an infrastructure. They experience them as ease, confidence, and control in their financial lives.You know, personally, I’ve had some speed bumps in moving money, and I cannot begin to tell you the uncomfortableness I felt. And just having, you know, not having the ability to move money easily between accounts really left me flummoxed and concerned and stressed. When credit unions innovate here, they stop competing on features and start differentiating on how it feels to do business with them.

And, you know, in the situation where I had some trouble moving the money, I got a little spicy. And you talk about feeling, nobody likes a dark Mark or a spicy Mark. And so, you know, I think that this is really going to help credit unions think through that differentiating moment on how not to be sludge in a situation around money movement.

CK: Yeah. So we did have our Stablecoin Summit, which we’re working on an output from that that talked about, you know, different perspectives of how fast it’s moving and what’s happening. But what other moments or themes from big.bright.minds. stood out to you in the conversations about not just payments, but innovation overall?

MM: You know, I think at big.bright.minds., what really stood out were the honest conversations around uncertainty. You know, I think what I did hear from some of our colleagues, of 500 or so attendees there, was some saw the future as a future truly of opportunity, while others had anxiety and concern. And, you know, I think as we look at digital assets, real-time payments, where stable fits into a values-driven financial system, these discussions pushed us to focus less on predicting winners and more on helping credit unions ask better questions, which is exactly kind of bringing it back to the Payments Center.

You know, where our upcoming point-counterpoint work will come to life, not just the data-driven insights, but giving people an opportunity to look at two dimensions or three dimensions of the opportunities that lie ahead.

CK: Yeah. So, Mark, you mentioned your own personal experience of trying to move money, and how something that feels like it should just be more transactional became really emotional for you. And one of the things that came out of big.bright.minds. again and again is that really, to be remarkable, it usually happens in those moments of friction where something that you’re not planning for can become an issue.

And I think payments and the financial infrastructure that we have is supposed to lie in the background where you’re not thinking about it, but, you know, in times of either personal crisis or community crisis, they all of a sudden become essential, right? You realize, okay, it’s not working the way it’s supposed to. And it creates a lot of anxiety, and also creates difficulty sometimes in actually making those things happen. But we wanted to ground this experience. We wanted to ground this conversation.

Some of these experiences we’re actually seeing in the market. And we want to do that because we know this really comes to life inside the credit union. And it’s not theoretical. It’s not research or strategy, but it’s actually how credit unions show up. And that the individual people who work for the credit unions and serve the members, they are ultimately defining what remarkable looks like. And so one of our examples is from Nav, from First City Credit Union. He’s the CEO there, reflecting on a moment from 2025 that made that definition very real.

Nav Khanna: What I thought was a very remarkable event in 2025 was on January the 6th, our building was on fire and our community was on fire. And in Altadena, California, as a result of the Eaton Canyon fire, we saw 8,000 residential structures and 2,000 commercial structures burned to the ground.

First City Credit Union and all the affected credit unions in our region flew into action and did what we do best, did what we were chartered to do, did what our community needed of us. And we helped with every forbearance effort, relief effort, volunteer effort we could come up with to make sure that our stakeholders, constituents were taken care of, kept safe, and supported.

I love working in the industry we work in. I wouldn’t work in any other industry, and I’m very, very proud of the response of First City Credit Union and others in our space and what we were able to do in a time of crisis and devastation. We truly came together as one.

CK: Yeah, I love that story. And I think that that’s one of many, many, many examples of how credit unions help in a crisis in their community. And it’s a powerful reminder that where leadership shows up, particularly in moments of urgency and uncertainty. But we also know that credit unions are not just there for their members in unplanned events, but they also are there for planned financial issues that members face. And some credit unions really work on what are their ongoing internal, intentional commitments to the community that happen when there’s not a crisis.

And so another example that we want to share comes from Vermont, where this credit union really looks at how they can weave their impact into everyday life in really practical ways. So here’s Rob from East Rise Credit Union sharing his example of how partnership, persistence, and local trust can really turn a simple interaction into something truly remarkable.

Rob Miller: This past year, East Rise Credit Union supported 83 different organizations across Vermont, with nearly half of our community giving supporting basic needs, like access to food and housing. But if I had to pick one moment that truly reminded me why our work at East Rise makes a difference, it would be our involvement in an event called Wheels for Warmth.

Wheels for Warmth started here in Vermont 20 years ago with a simple but powerful idea: raise money for emergency heating assistance by collecting and selling safe used tires at affordable prices. Any unsold or unsafe tires get properly disposed of, keeping them out of our rivers and roads.

We’ve been proud to help sponsor and plan this annual event for several years, working with incredible community partners across Vermont to make sure families have a warm, comfortable place to call home during winter.

The results this year were record-breaking. Folks lined up for hours before the event, stretching down a block to buy tires and get them safely through the winter. We helped raise $108,000, pushing the 20-year total to nearly $1 million. And it happened thanks to the collaboration between local nonprofits, businesses, and volunteers working side by side.

Wheels for Warmth stands out to me as a remarkable moment because it’s more than a tire sale. It’s a lifeline for families, a model of community and partnership, and a reflection of what makes Vermont strong. Moments like this remind me why this work matters.

CK: So, Mark, hearing these two examples of how credit unions are stepping up on an ongoing and on an unplanned basis, what really sticks out to you about each one of those?

MM: Well, what really stands out, Christie, is that each one of these examples or illustrations are not about programs or not about products. They’re about the institutions and the leadership and the talent of those organizations showing up in ways that only credit unions can. There are moments that matter the most.

This is really, to me, great illustrations, examples of how credit unions differentiate themselves by acting with speed, by acting with heart and deep local trust, when and where communities need us most.

And it’s not because it’s strategic. It’s not because it’s, you know, more. It’s because of who we are. It’s because of the structure. And, gosh darn it, it’s because it’s the right thing to do.

CK: You know, one thing you say a lot that I think is really applicable here, again, going back to your three pieces of leadership, right? The pace that’s happening, the courage that it takes to lead, the alignment that’s required. But one of the things you say to us is when there’s uncertainty, go back to your values, right? If you’re not sure what to do, if you go back to your values, then that can be your lighthouse or your North Star of what the things are, what actions we should take.

And I think when you think about being remarkable, to your point, a lot of times it’s not the program, in quotes, but it’s the people doing the right thing in the moment because it’s the right thing, not because it’s some offering that is being put out there.

So if somebody is listening to this and they’re thinking about next year, they’re thinking about 2026, and something that they could do differently, or they could implement as they go forward, what do you hope that that would be?

MM: Well, you know, there’s probably two to three different opportunities. One is, if you’re going to do one thing differently, give yourself permission to test something before you feel fully ready. You know, run the pilot, ask the hard question, explore new ideas with intention. Remarkable doesn’t come from certainty. It comes from curiosity paired with action. So to talk less, do more. I’d kind of put it in that.

I think that the other options in this category really are, make decisions that are meaningfully different for your members, not just incrementally better than other financial institutions. Remarkable credit unions will choose clarity and purpose over sameness, even when that choice might feel a little bit uncomfortable.

I guess the final piece to this is we have to make trade-offs. You can’t do it all. And so really, I think what I’m learning in leading a smaller organization, a think tank, a nonprofit, is the power of opportunity costs. Less excuses, more intention. And, you know, a lot of times, “Well, we just had a little more money, we could do this.” Well, you don’t. So you got what you got. You know, the three-year-old: you get what you get, don’t have a fit. What are you going to do with it? So, you know, in the case of our organization, we have a small, modest balance sheet to make change, for meaningful change, for credit unions. How do we have intention? How do we have focus? We have six Centers of Excellence, and we test products for you. We can’t boil the ocean, but we can make change.

CK: Well, thanks for that, Mark. And I also just want to express my gratitude for the great work that credit unions are doing. Right? I think it makes our job really fun to help elevate that. And, you know, I think that the stories are moving, not just for the members, but I think they’re inspiration for us as well. So thank you for having this conversation with me today. Any last words that you want to say to our audience?

MM: Let’s make 2026 remarkable.

Host: I’d love to leave you on Mark’s final thought, but there are a few threads from this conversation that connect directly to Filene’s research and to what we heard from leaders like First City and East Rise that are worth naming.

Earlier, Nav talked about how credit unions show up in moments that really matter, especially during disruption and crisis. That’s something the movement has done for decades. After Hurricane Katrina, Filene captured those lessons in Cooperative Comebacks, and more recently in our January 2025 piece, Worth Protecting, which brings together current research and resources on preparedness, trust, and response.

We also heard how impact shows up outside of crisis moments, like East Rise’s Wheels for Warmth program, meeting everyday needs in practical, human ways. That same spirit is reflected in our recent housing series that wrapped up at the beginning of January, from Community Social Impact. The series highlights innovative approaches credit unions are taking in their communities.

And throughout the episode, Mark reminded us that digital strategy only works when it’s grounded in culture. That idea sits at the center of Filene’s Design for Digital work and our upcoming Design for Digital benchmarking survey, launching in winter 2026.

We’ll link to those resources in the show notes. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you again at the end of January for more from the Filene Fill-In.