[00:00:00] Paul Gentile: This is who we serve. Why do we have to go out and form a charity so we can let other people in? Why do we have to add five more segs if we’re doing great as a credit union and we’re serving our base? I think that’s some of the debate in the credit union system today. If it’s all just grow, grow, grow, a hundred percent, 24 hours a day.

[00:00:19] Paul Gentile: I mean, we could all find ways to do that, but we look at just serving our base as good as we possibly can.

[00:00:27] Narrator: Welcome to 22 minutes in lending your Go-To podcast for insights on all things lending from lending practices, regulatory updates. How to enhance lending efforts and more. In each episode, Vince Passione connects with industry leaders to discuss the latest trends and happenings around the lending industry.

[00:00:47] Narrator: Let’s dive in to the latest in lending.

[00:00:53] Vince Passione: Welcome back to 22 Minutes in Lending. I’m your host, Vince Passione. And today I am especially excited to welcome someone I’ve known for over 15 years, going back to when he was one of my very first business partners in the credit union industry. Today we’re joined by Paul Gentile, President, and CEO of Merck Employees Federal Credit Union.

[00:01:11] Vince Passione: Paul oversees a $1.8 billion institution dedicated to serving the workforce of and Coral, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Paul’s career is unique in our industry, a decade at the helm of the credit Union Times. Key leadership roles of both the New Jersey Credit Union League, cuna, and President of New England’s Cooperative Credit Union Association and now leading one of the strongest employee based credit unions in the country.

[00:01:36] Vince Passione: Paul, it is great to have you here.

[00:01:38] Paul Gentile: Thank you, Vince. Pleasure to be here. Excited.

[00:01:40] Vince Passione: Great. Well, we’ll jump right in. I always love to hear about the journey, so we talk a lot to a lot of different credit union CEOs. And a lot of ’em talk about starting as tellers and talk, starting in corporate finance, but you’re, but 30 years ago you were a publisher.

[00:01:56] Vince Passione: Um, so how did you end up in the CEO spot at, at this credit union?

[00:02:02] Paul Gentile: Yeah, well I was a editor publisher at Credit Union Times for many years, a wonderful organization. That’s really where I got my foot in the door of credit unions, like I like to tell people, being the editor of Credit Union Times is like going to college on credit unions.

[00:02:16] Paul Gentile: Because you had to learn about everything. You had to know about data processing, you had to know about state politics, you had to know about credit debit, you had to know about lending. So it was a really unique experience to really get a background on the great system that I, that I love today and have never left.

[00:02:32] Paul Gentile: Uh, so yeah, started at Credit Union Times and then moved on to the political side with the New Jersey Credit Union League, and then the Cooperative Credit Union Association a little time at Kuna. So yeah, it’s been a wild ride, but I’m really, really happy. To be here at Merck, it’s a wonderful institution.

[00:02:48] Paul Gentile: We are solely dedicated to helping our members, and there’s many ways we do that. Uh, we’re a traditional credit union. We really like to do things the old school way. Um, serving our members needs always focused on being their trusted partner, and that’s why I think we have such dedicated and loyal members today.

[00:03:06] Vince Passione: So, Paul, you mentioned, um, the trade association. Obviously you mentioned, you know, starting on the political side, we certainly have had, have done some joint work together when you were at cuna right? And, and lobbying on behalf of student loans. What, what did you learn from your time in the trade associations and that you were able to apply?

[00:03:26] Vince Passione: And your current role as CEO at Merck Federal Credit Union?

[00:03:29] Paul Gentile: Well, it’s a great question. I think honestly, I learned a lot more at Credit Union Times. ’cause again, you had to be an expert on everything if you were gonna write about it. So that was a big heavy, it was like being, again, going to school on credit unions.

[00:03:41] Paul Gentile: Uh, on the political side, I think you really learned the different wants and needs of credit unions, how we’re so diverse and trying to get things that benefit the system. And all the individual credit unions is challenging, so you look for common areas. Where you could help the credit union system do well.

[00:03:59] Paul Gentile: Yeah. So look, you’ve, you’ve talked about the,

[00:04:01] Vince Passione: the macro, right? And, uh, and I know, I know that’s part of why, and you, you touched it earlier, right? Being at the cu times, you have to almost be an expert in everything, right? ’cause you never know what you’re gonna write about. Sure. And it gives you a purview that probably a, a lot of people lack.

[00:04:16] Vince Passione: But if you think about the macro backdrop. What is the biggest challenge that’s facing credit unions right now? Is it the regulatory environment? Is it the economic environment? I mean, I, I know they all come together to affect you as you just said, but what do you think the biggest challenge is?

[00:04:29] Paul Gentile: Yeah, so I think, uh, there’s a couple things.

[00:04:31] Paul Gentile: I think if you look at the more pedestrian things right in front of us, right? We all have a challenge with fraud. It’s a big, big issue in the credit union system, the financial system. It’s only getting worse. Um, so that’s sort of a day-to-day operational challenge that we’re all trying to, um, you know, stare down and beat.

[00:04:51] Paul Gentile: For example, we at the credit union take it very seriously. We have a. Fraud service. We offer our members free. It’s called Careful. It monitors all their accounts, gives them constant education on fraud. We had an incredible story just two days ago, a woman came in for $42,000 in cash to buy her neighbor’s car.

[00:05:09] Paul Gentile: She was an elderly woman. We didn’t believe it. We thought there was something going on. Um, she was adamant, she said, my family’s involved, my neighbor, I’ve known for five years. I’m buying the car. We dug a little deeper and she was being defrauded. She was being defrauded from somebody from another country who told her that the credit union received $42,000 in her account, um, for illicit activity.

[00:05:34] Paul Gentile: And she needed to return it immediately. And they told her not to mention, um, the fraud because the credit union wouldn’t give them the money. So she made up a story that she was buying a car and she was not. So these things are happening every day and it’s so sad to see, especially the older members by the way, when she learned that she was being defrauded.

[00:05:54] Paul Gentile: ’cause she really believed she had to owe this money. She broke down crying. She was hugging everybody in the credit union. Like these are the real things that we do on a daily basis, you know? I think fraud is such a big issue. On the practical side, um, the regulators are a little bit behind. The regulators do a great job, but when they come in to examine you, fraud is not even mentioned, right?

[00:06:15] Paul Gentile: We’re doing our BSA exam, we’re doing our IT security exam. You don’t hear anything about fraud. So I think they gotta focus on that and get a little bit better at that. Um, but big picture, Vince, when I look big picture. I guess what I worry about is, you know, the credit union sort of industry, we’re doing great things.

[00:06:34] Paul Gentile: Um, you see a lot of credit unions buying banks, which, you know, it’s America. That’s great. Um, you see a lot of credit unions have expanded dramatically. Again, capitalism, it’s great. Um, I do worry over time if it’s gonna diminish sort of our thread. And hurt us on the tax exemption front and what it is to be a credit union.

[00:06:55] Paul Gentile: So I think we have to get our stories together and show our value what exactly we’re doing for the membership in America. So we keep that credit union thread strong and maintain our status and not lose our status. I worry about that. And, um, I think we need great messaging on Capitol Hill to win that battle.

[00:07:14] Paul Gentile: That’s why I think elder abuse, things like that, the goodwill stories that we do, we should be more front and center with, you know.

[00:07:22] Vince Passione: Yeah, it’s the niches, right? That’s that it it’s the niches. It’s, it’s sticking to those niches and, and allowing the, giving the regulators and the legislators a story, right?

[00:07:33] Vince Passione: Um, as to why credit unions do matter. ’cause when I, I was reading this morning, the cover of the American Banker, is it Michael Ball there talking about, you know, the credit unions buying banks again. And every time that happens, you know, you know, the flag’s gonna come up again and again and again. Um, and it’s great for those that are doing it.

[00:07:51] Vince Passione: You know, many of them are picking up things like they’re, they’re acquiring small business lending, right? They’re, they’re, they’re putting footprints in new states that make sense for them. But, uh, it does continue to raise that flag as to, Hey, why is, why, why are we letting them do this? So, Paul, when, when we look at Merck, right, so Merck.

[00:08:10] Vince Passione: 68,000 employees globally. 30,000 in New Jersey, right? You’re sitting there in railway, you’re a seg based credit union. You’re probably one of the oldest seg based credit unions, you know? You know, we see credit unions open up there as field of membership. We see association based credit unions. We see community-based credit unions, but this is a seg credit union.

[00:08:28] Vince Passione: So who are you serving within Merck? Uh,

[00:08:32] Paul Gentile: it’s the employees and family members of Merck. Mm-hmm. So oftentimes people will join the company and they hear about, Hey, you need to join the credit union. We want to give them a reason to join. Um, I believe that starts with lending an auto loan, a home loan, a student loan.

[00:08:47] Paul Gentile: I think, you know, lending’s really a big tie for the newer people that come aboard. But we have a great history of getting the family members to sign up. You have people that come in, generational credit union members. Mother, father, daughter, son, granddaughter, grandson. It goes all the way down the line and we spend a lot of time on, you know, making sure people pass down, uh, the valued membership.

[00:09:09] Paul Gentile: But we are serving a corporate membership. So, you know, we deal with things like a lot of people relocating. There’s relocation service, Merck does. So we want to be there for the lending side. We help people with mortgages when they’re relocating. So we still have to have that sort of understanding of what they’re trying to do, um, and help them.

[00:09:27] Paul Gentile: But you know. Like I say all the time here, Vince, as long as you’re doing the right thing by the membership, it doesn’t matter if you’re serving Merck or if you’re serving the general population. Just do the right thing and you’ll do well. And I think that’s what’s happening here right now. We’re doing very well right now.

[00:09:41] Vince Passione: Now Paul, I visited, you’ve recently, you’re right there on that campus in railway. Yeah. Uh, with your branch. Tell us a little about what’s the relationship like? I mean, do you get a lot of foot traffic, people coming in? Are they coming in to transact? Are they coming in with questions? I know you’re big on financial literacy.

[00:09:57] Vince Passione: Talk about the relationship with this, with this particular employer.

[00:10:01] Paul Gentile: Well, yeah, that we do get a lot of foot traffic from the employees. Um, you know, I know everyone thinks banking’s completely remote today or, you know, a lot of people think that way, but we see being on campus, imagine you’re an employee here, you could just stop by, go get your lunch and then stop into the credit union, get some money out, get a question answered, find out about a loan.

[00:10:23] Paul Gentile: So yeah, we definitely get a lot of foot traffic. Uh, we do have our online membership, obviously, and we’ll hear from people, um, at Merck if they think something could be a little bit better. Uh, so it’s good that we’re right there, right? People are not shy about giving us feedback. So that’s another big part of it.

[00:10:39] Paul Gentile: And we’ll do events on campus. We’ll do education sessions on campus. Uh, but, you know, Merck’s a great partner. They let us do the right thing by the members. They give us, you know, space, they give us time. So it’s, uh, it’s, it’s great.

[00:10:53] Vince Passione: Now you mentioned ED Lending. We met 15 years ago. You were my first business partner, right when you were the president of the Jersey Credit Union League and, and we went out and recruited, I think in the beginning over 24 New Jersey credit unions into ED lending.

[00:11:06] Vince Passione: And then about five months ago, you called me and said. Hey, I think we’ve got a, we’ve got a concern here about Merck, right? Talk to us about that. ’cause with the big, beautiful Bill, there’s a lot going on now, right? Ed lending is coming up more and more, and I’m curious about the thought process, the conversations with the board, and you went through your first lending season, so what you know, will you spot on as far as the pain point and what’s been the reception like to the employees?

[00:11:32] Paul Gentile: I think it’s exciting. We’ve had a lot of student loan activity, even though we just got in around July, which was right, the next funding season, right? Mm-hmm. Um, we’re doing very well. I think, you know what, we have this, in this corporate membership, we have a lot of parents that are sending their kids to school, but we also have a lot of people that have graduated with multiple degrees.

[00:11:53] Paul Gentile: And when we see them come in for auto loans or home loans, you’ll see eight student loans on the um, the credit report. Right. And we’ve heard over the years, Hey, what could I do to get this payment down? Is there anything you guys offer? And you know, home equity’s always the thing you talk about with somebody consolidating, but that doesn’t work in all cases.

[00:12:11] Paul Gentile: So we thought it was important to get a product that could kind of meet this need. We did one last week, which I think is a great example, is a 20. This was a younger member, 25 years old. She’s been a member of the credit union only three years, uh, works at Merck and she had, I think, 12 student loans. Um.

[00:12:31] Paul Gentile: One was at 10.8%. I mean a bulk of them were at about 10.8%. Another bulk were about 7.9%, and I think we refinanced her all of it for about 6.4%. So she not only simplified her life, she got a better rate and she’s very, very happy. And she’s also doing an auto loan with us. So, you know, we just wanna be able to meet demand and, and have something for everybody.

[00:12:54] Paul Gentile: So student loans are great. I’m a big believer in it. I don’t think people are gonna stop going to college ’cause of ai. Um, you know, in fact, it may be the other side. There might actually be more people going to college, so we just wanna be there for them in that phase of their life.

[00:13:09] Vince Passione: Yeah. We should back up, Paul, for our listeners.

[00:13:10] Vince Passione: I mean, a large percentage of your, your, your members, they have advanced degrees. So these are Merck employees, many of ’em with PhDs and MDs. So they’re, they are graduating with significant student loan debt.

[00:13:22] Paul Gentile: Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. And um, you know, we find PhDs, scientists all over the campus. This is who we’re serving.

[00:13:31] Paul Gentile: Um, and they’re brilliant people. I don’t necessarily think they wanna spend a lot of time on their finances in terms of they want it simple. Um, they’re such smart people. They want to go to a source and say, Hey, what’s the best thing for me? Um, ’cause they’re not, you know, they’re dedicated to their craft, so we try to make it very easy for them and have things packaged up nicely and being able to say, Hey, you could refinance all those great degrees you have here at the credit union.

[00:13:58] Paul Gentile: I think it’s powerful.

[00:13:59] Vince Passione: No, it is, it is. Now. Paul, we’ve talked about the membership. It is somewhat unique. It does it, does it change sort of the way you look at them from an underwriting perspective? Does it, does it change the way you lend to them? I mean, they all sound like they would be great, right? To lend to, but do you do something special in underwriting because of this, this unique sort of workforce that, that that’s highly educated, very stable with this employer?

[00:14:23] Paul Gentile: Uh, I don’t think so, Vince. I think what we try to be is a very friendly lender. Um, I mean, outside here, I know somebody, somebody just came in from the campus to sit with one of our loan people to talk about refinancing their auto loan. I know everything’s online and technology, but we also wanna be that person where you can come in and talk to us about loans.

[00:14:44] Paul Gentile: So we’re very, very hands-on and friendly, uh, with these folks. Um, I don’t think we treat ’em any differently from an underwriting perspective. Um, they’re great candidates. Uh, we, uh, we’re in a few QSOs and, you know, it’s not uncommon for us to hear that our pool of loans are some of the most high quality, um, that they see, you know, even QSOs with two, 300 credit unions ’cause of the, the membership that we serve.

[00:15:10] Paul Gentile: So. Yeah, nothing special though. We just treat ’em all. Great.

[00:15:18] Vicki Roscoe Erickson: Hello, I’m Vicki Roscoe Erickson, senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Top Line Financial Credit Union in Minnesota. We’ve been working with LendKey and member student lending since 2010 to offer private student loans and student loan refinancing to our members. As the cost of higher education continues to rise, students and families are seeking new financing solutions, and that’s where our partnership comes in.

[00:15:44] Vicki Roscoe Erickson: It provides us the opportunity to assist members and their families with affordable education loan options. So far, we’ve been able to help nearly 800 members with over 1500 loans totaling over $2 million. This is an amazing opportunity to support our members at the beginning of their financial and education journeys.

[00:16:10] Vince Passione: So really loyal seg base, but that also means that you’re kind of gated in the way it can grow. So how does it affect you in the way you look at the business and how do you stay relevant?

[00:16:24] Paul Gentile: I don’t know. I think, I think some of that, Vince is the roots of the credit union system. This is our seg. This is who we serve.

[00:16:30] Paul Gentile: Mm-hmm. Why do we have to go out and form a charity so we can let other people in? Why do we have to add five more segs if we’re doing great as a credit union and we’re serving our base? I think that’s some of the debate in the credit union system today. If it’s all just grow, grow, grow, a hundred percent, 24 hours a day.

[00:16:49] Paul Gentile: I mean, we could all find ways to do that, but we look at just serving our base as good as we possibly can, and we think growth will come. It’ll just be slower than a community credit union that could reach, you know, hundreds of thousands of people at any time. Or somebody with multi, multi, you know, said groups.

[00:17:06] Paul Gentile: I think we stick to our mission. That’s why I said we’re a pretty traditional credit union. We’re here to serve Merck and um, we want them to feel good about the credit union, so we’re not gonna diverge off and add a bunch of groups. It’s just not who we are.

[00:17:19] Vince Passione: And Paul, is that what you think most segs should be doing?

[00:17:21] Vince Passione: You know, it, it is sort of like, look, when I first started working, uh, my first job was at IBM as an engineer and the IBM, federal Credit Union was on campus. Right? Just like it reminded me so much of being at railway at your credit union. And I got my first auto loan there. I had direct deposit there. Um.

[00:17:40] Vince Passione: And they were a very, they were a direct shop, right? They did no indirect lending. Do you think that’s sort of, when you say that’s the heart of the system, is that where SEG should be focused in saying like, you know, growth should be, you serve your member, you serve this seg.

[00:17:56] Paul Gentile: Yeah, I do. I mean, if you look, there’s some very big or big companies in America that have credit unions and the credit unions are not very big.

[00:18:03] Paul Gentile: They have not penetrated those segs over the years. Mm-hmm. So I think if you have a very healthy seg and, and, and they’re willing to work with you, I mean, I think that’s what you should be doing. Uh, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grow and expand, but if you’re not serving your seg the best you can, I think that’s where we’re gonna have some challenges.

[00:18:20] Paul Gentile: Right. So. Um, yeah. You know, obviously if a SEG that’s not cooperating or the SEG has issues or they’re merging, then that’s all different.

[00:18:29] Vince Passione: Right? But, but what makes Merck unique? I mean, this is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. I mean, if they wanted banking services, right, they could probably get any bank to come in there.

[00:18:39] Vince Passione: Right, and, and create some type of affinity relationship with them. But they are real. I mean, I’ve got a chance to talk to your board. They are very engaged, right in that credit union. What it does for its members. Is there, is it specific to Merck or is it, Hey, this has been a tradition at the credit union like.

[00:18:57] Vince Passione: I, I, we certainly ha serve other credit unions that are seg based, and as you said, they do not penetrate at the level. Like I look at the executives in some of these credit unions, some of them are, are sitting on campuses with hospitals, pretty large hospital chains. They don’t serve the doctors, they serve all the other employees, and even there, they don’t have the kind of penetration that you have.

[00:19:19] Paul Gentile: Yeah. Well, I don’t think it’s easy. I, I do think the crediton here is a tradition. I think it, it’s very much a tradition and we keep it that way by doing old school things. We have our in-person annual meeting right on campus. Right. Uh, obviously make the, uh, corporation executives, um, you know, part of the, part of the process.

[00:19:37] Paul Gentile: So, I don’t know. I think, I think the old school way of really just staying true to who you are and staying true to your knitting and just serving that group, I think. I think companies like that, if you do it well, you know? Mm-hmm. Uh, as far as big banks though, Vince, yeah, sure. Just like campuses. I mean, you go on some of the college campuses in New Jersey, you see Bank of America, Wells Fargo and all that.

[00:20:00] Paul Gentile: I think anybody could do that, but I think people who understand banking know there is a difference. To having a group that’s dedicated just to you and Bank of America will never be just to any one institution, right? Mm-hmm. So that goes back to your question earlier about the seg difference, and that’s how credit unions were founded, and that’s what makes us unique.

[00:20:19] Paul Gentile: You serve your SEG group, so.

[00:20:21] Vince Passione: Well put, well put. So I was looking at your 5,300 report, Paul, and it’s kind of enviable, um, 60, 63% loan to share. So you’ve got significant opportunities out there, right for that balance sheet. 14% net worth, um, on a $1.8 billion institution. So it’s pretty far above the industry average at 14%.

[00:20:41] Vince Passione: What’s behind that? Is it just making smart decisions on lending? You know, I mean, obviously, you know, cost of funds is a big issue.

[00:20:49] Paul Gentile: Yeah. You mentioned a loan to share. We’ll, we’ll lend as much as possible. Mm-hmm. If you look at us, say they don’t wanna lend, that’s not true. We’ll, we’ll do, we, we’re really looking at lending.

[00:20:59] Paul Gentile: So everything we possibly do to lend, we do, um, you can’t force it on people. We have a lot of people that are well off and they’re not necessarily gonna borrow, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, our loan to share ratio is lower because as you know, we have a high dollar balance, so you’re never gonna get to 90% when you have a dollar balance like that.

[00:21:15] Paul Gentile: Um, but no, we’re very dedicated to lending. That’s why we launched student loans. Uh, we expanded our home equity programs recently. Uh, we do a lot on the first mortgage side, so we’ll do whatever we possibly can on that capital though. I will say Vince, we do like capital here. We do like to be seen as a very healthy credit union with our capital reserve.

[00:21:35] Paul Gentile: Um, and, you know, we would deploy capital if we see correct opportunities. I mean, I’ll be honest, I’m a very big believer in some of the things going on with stable coins. I think, uh, stable coins are gonna change how we. Pay for things in the country, how our payment systems work, and I’m really looking forward to a credit union group coming up with something on stable coins.

[00:21:57] Paul Gentile: That’s something we would think about putting capital to work with, right? Getting something, get, getting involved in there. Uh, we like capital for technology. I do think technology’s changing rapidly, so we wanna have capital for that. So it’s kind of deliberate. We wanna be very strong.

[00:22:11] Vince Passione: So headline for the future.

[00:22:12] Vince Passione: Paul, you’ve been in the system for a long time. Um, and let’s kind of revisit when you started. So you said, you know, most experience you got or best experience was as a journalist. So it’s January, 2030. What’s the top credit union headline on the CU times

[00:22:27] Paul Gentile: 2, 20 30?

[00:22:29] Vince Passione: Yeah. 2030.

[00:22:31] Paul Gentile: Oh boy. I don’t know Vince. I would say hopefully it’s good headlines.

[00:22:35] Paul Gentile: Hopefully credit unions are still not-for-profit. Financial cooperatives. Hopefully we’re still growing. Uh, I would think it would be a lot different on, like I said, the payments world. I think the way mm-hmm we interact with payments with our members is gonna be very different. I know we’ve talked about that for years, but I think it’s really finally starting to change.

[00:22:56] Paul Gentile: I think people are gonna get tired of the, the same old rails to make transactions, right? Mm-hmm. It’s very heavy on fraud. It’s very clunky. Um, I think that whole scene is gonna change and are we gonna adapt quick enough, right? If Amazon makes a stable coin and you just, they just say, Hey, load up your stable coin and Amazon, everything you buy could be an Amazon stable coin.

[00:23:17] Paul Gentile: You know, where are credit unions? What do we look like? Um, I really think that’s how it’s gonna be in the world in the future. So I don’t know what that headline looks like, but I hope we’re in it and I hope we’re very involved. ’cause I think it’s what our pain, our members are gonna be doing.

[00:23:32] Vince Passione: No, it’s, uh, it’s probably the biggest disintermediator that’s out there on the horizon when you think about it.

[00:23:37] Vince Passione: And certainly your NCOH chair talks about it whenever he can. Right. So it’s kind of good to see that credit unions are really talking about it. You’re talking about it. We’re hearing it as we go to conferences.

[00:23:48] Paul Gentile: Well, I think, yeah, I think we diverged from Bitcoin versus stablecoin. Mm-hmm. Two very different things.

[00:23:52] Paul Gentile: Right. Stable coin’s. A conveyance to moving money, transactions. You know, Bitcoin, you could, you could. Talk about that a lot of different ways, gold, et cetera. But I think we’re talking about the right way with, with stable coins as a vehicle. Mm-hmm. To fund loans like you, like you guys do. Right. To fund loans, to make purchases, make payments.

[00:24:12] Paul Gentile: So that’s where I think the world’s going.

[00:24:15] Vince Passione: No. Great. Great. Well, Paul, this has been fantastic. It’s been a great conversation. It’s great to reconnect with you. Yeah. And known each other for a long time. Um, I just wanna say thank you for joining us and, and also just thank you for everything I know you’ve done for the credit union movement.

[00:24:28] Vince Passione: You know, I followed your career and have had a chance to work with you have stop of the way so. Great job there and great job what you’re doing at Merck. Yeah, thanks so much.

[00:24:36] Paul Gentile: Always appreciate, always appreciate it Vince. And we certainly enjoy the student lending that we’re doing with you guys and we think it’s very important strategically.

[00:24:43] Paul Gentile: So thank you for what you guys do as well.

[00:24:45] Vince Passione: No, I appreciate that and and thanks for the partnership. And to our listeners, thanks for tuning in and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. We’ll see you next time at 22 minutes in lending. Thanks again, Paul.

[00:24:57] Narrator: Thank you for listening to the 22 Minutes in Lending podcast.

[00:25:01] Narrator: We hope you enjoy today’s episode. You’ll find links to any resources mentioned in the show notes. If you’re enjoying our show, please be sure to subscribe and leave us a five star review.