Expanding the usage of its shared branching network, shared branching vendor Credit Union Centers has three more credit unions leveraging this cost effective means of adding community locations to their financial institutions.
Credit Union Centers has garnered CBI Federal Credit Union ($15 million; 1,500 members; Plainfield, IL), Independent Federal Credit Union ($81 million; 15,351 members; Anderson, IN), and KONE Employees Credit Union ($19 million; 2,649 members; Moline, IL). Each of these credit unions have access to Credit Union Centers more than 4,000 branches nationwide more than 200 in Indiana and Illinois combined.
KONE Employees Credit Union, for instance, has good reason to use shared branching. According to the Katherine Hoeper, KONEs President and CEO, 85 percent of the credit unions membership does not reside locally to its one building: its headquarters. Most of its members are located throughout the country and world some as far away as Australia, Canada, England, and Puerto Rico.
We are not able to serve our members like a traditional brick and mortar credit union, says Hoeper. So we rely heavily on technology services for our remote members to use. But we have found that Credit Union Centers shared branch network complements our online services nicely.
Before KONE incorporated shared branching, members would depend on the mail to make deposits or even receive money from the credit union. Hoeper explains that if a remote member needed money, KONE staff would have to mail them a check if they had no other means of getting their funds. If members wanted to deposit money, they would have mail in a check to the credit union. Shared branching can virtually eliminate these cumbersome mailing practices.
Our primary goal was to find a service that complemented our technology offerings that would provide members with the option of using our credit union the traditional way walking into a branch, Hoeper says. Our other goal for implementing the shared branching network is to get our members to open more share draft accounts. Only a third of our membership has them right now. We believe shared branching will help us in this area, as well.
Were very pleased to have these credit unions join the Credit Union Centers shared branching network, says Dan Davis EVP/CFO of Credit Union Centers. We believe this service is the ideal way to save money during todays challenging economic climate while either enhancing or maintaining great member service. We see KONE, CBI, and Independence benefiting greatly by leveraging this network to complement their other member services.