About

Paul Fichter is the executive vice president and chief legal officer of Credit Union 1 (CU1), an Illinois state-chartered credit union that provides consumer and business financial services to its membership.  CU1 is the official banking partner of Notre Dame Athletics.  

During Paul’s 18-year tenure, CU1 has grown through 20 mergers and acquisitions to expand the credit union’s operations from Illinois to Nevada, Indiana, and Georgia; established naming rights with the University of Illinois at Chicago; become the official banking partner of Notre Dame Athletics and one of the few financial institutions that provide banking services to cannabis related businesses; and has participated with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development to assist in providing loans to cannabis related businesses under the State of Illinois’ Social Equity Program.   

Paul oversees the legal operations, recovery, risk and compliance, administrative operations, fraud operations, and cannabis banking departments. His duties include managing corporate legal affairs; advising on compliance with legal and regulatory requirements; providing legal services on corporate transactional matters (real estate leases, consumer disclosure and agreements); managing real estate owned (REO) and sale of REO assets; advising on widespread consumer regulations; advising on risk management, fraud, data security, corporate governance, internal controls, and employment law issues; overseeing management of retained outside counsel; regulatory compliance and legal research; contract review; policy and procedure drafting.   

He has shared his expertise in creditor rights through seminars, at least one of which was continuing legal education accredited – Hot Topics in Consumer Collections, Illinois State Bar Association – Representing Creditors in Consumer Foreclosures.   

Paul is an active member of the Sports Car Club of America and in his free time, enjoys driving his formula vee race car around the local Midwest racetracks as fast as he can.  Paul and his family are avid world travellers having been to Vietnam, Bora Bora, Greece, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, and much of Central America.