CUES

Credit Union Executives Society
www.cues.org

There’s a clear correlation between my membership in CUES and my credit union’s success. We were recently named runner-up for the Jamaican Co-operative Credit Union League Credit Union of the Year in the medium-sized credit union category. This is the first time we’ve received an award of this caliber since our inception in 1979, and CUES is a big reason that we did.

My name is Desreen, and I am CUES.


II have always enjoyed the chance to learn about new things and take on new challenges. I’ve been fortunate to have a career that’s allowed me to do both.

My first job was outside the credit union industry at National Housing Trust, a mortgage company in Kingston, Jamaica. My time there was extremely rewarding because I had the privilege to work in almost every department. Personnel, finance, R&D, compliance, mortgages, insurance—I did it all! I gained a broad range of knowledge and skills and that experience laid the groundwork for my future. After tackling such a breadth of assignments, I knew I could be successful in any industry.

I made the transition to credit unions when I became general manager at Building Societies Co-Operative Credit Union, also in Kingston. The differences between the mortgage industry and the credit union industry were apparent immediately. The biggest was the structure. The mortgage industry was much more bureaucratic, and there was little leeway for creativity or flexibility; the opposite was true at the credit union. There, I was expected to make decisions without going through a chain of command and rewarded for being innovative and resourceful. It was an eye-opener!     

I eventually joined my current credit union, NAJ Co-operative Credit Union, in Kingston, again, as general manager. It was here that I first heard about CUES when I went to a conference in Boston with my board president. I immediately recognized the value that CUES could offer our credit union and attended the CUES International Leadership Academy shortly thereafter.

Membership in CUES has opened a number of doors for me. It’s connected me to other credit union executives across the Caribbean—which has been invaluable for networking—and it’s given me a glimpse of how business is done in other systems. For instance, credit unions in the U.S. tend to take a more tech-centric approach and are also more likely to rely on shared branching. These are things that Jamaican credit unions haven’t embraced yet, but it’s valuable to know about them.

In fact, being part of CUES helped me choose and research my dissertation topic, a quantitative correlation study of credit union shared branching in the United States and Jamaica. I focused on credit unions in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. who were using shared branching and analyzed their model to determine if it could be successfully applied to Jamaican credit unions. My CUES’ team was tremendous in helping me connect to these credit unions, and their executives were extremely generous when it came to sharing data.

One of the most valuable things I’ve learned from my experience with CUES is the importance of strategy development. There’s a clear correlation between my membership in CUES and my credit union’s success. We were recently named runner-up for the Jamaican Co-operative Credit Union League Credit Union of the Year in the medium-sized credit union category. This is the first time we’ve received an award of this caliber since our inception in 1979, and CUES is a big reason that we did.

Joining CUES has given my credit union access to best practices and a wealth of industry information and contacts. I’m always promoting CUES to my peers—to me it’s the smart path to growth and development.

My name is Desreen A.M. Marquis, from NAJ Co-operative Credit Union, and I am CUES. 

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