Alex Lintner

Now, let's talk locally versus nationally or super regionally.

In North America, we have the good luck that we have 7,000 financial institutions.

That is a model that's unique in the world.

We don't have that anywhere else.

And if you go all the way from the top to the bottom, at the bottom, you would find these credit unions.

And credit unions are typically very local, though there are now large ones like Navy Federal Credit Union.

You're familiar with all of those that serve the armed forces everywhere or USAA who serves members and relatives of armed forces, members for insurance and banking around the country.

So there are some exceptions, but largely credit unions are very local.

They do not have access to capital.

like the large super regional or national lenders have.

And access to capital is important because it is a volume game.

The more

you buy capital as a reseller, which is what a bank is, the better the terms you get.

And therefore, you have the potential of offering better terms to your borrowers, to the consumer.

And therefore, I think the mix of local and national is a good mix.

It has worked here in the U.S.

It's been in a long time.

All right, let's get into that.

So the way we work, we are a federated system, and that's not unusual.

So maybe our title's unsuperintuitive and don't explain it, but let me try to explain it.