Credit Union Times - October 1, 2008 - (Page 6) NEWS Centurion FCU Revives Personal Touch to Help Downtrodden Members By MICHELLE A. SAMAAD CU Times Senior Staff Reporter EVANSVILLE, Ind. — For many consumers, a job loss, a slash in healthcare benefits or an emergency that cuts into their usual take-home pay, often means struggling to make loan payments on time. At $26 million Centurion Federal Credit Union, some members line up to see a certain staffer because of his stellar service and empathy, said Kris Ploetz, president. He said he has seen it time and time again with Greg Geiss, vice president of lending, who has developed a soothing and reassuring rapport gleaned from 27 years of industry experience in CEO, lending and financial planning positions. “Greg has that personal touch when someone is delinquent on a loan. He’ll do whatever it takes within reason to make it work. On some occasions, he’ll go knock on doors,” Ploetz said. Geiss said his intentions are clear: to help members build their financial future. For every $20 they make on a loan payment, he wants them to put $1 in their savings account. “We want that for them. Unfortunately, members may have in mind what they want to do but it may not be the best thing for them,” Geiss explained. “I look at each individual differently. It’s not an assembly line loan arrangement.” That approach and others like it helped the credit union erase a 4% delinquency rate. Another loan officer was hired, terms were tightened, late loans fell below 1% and the loan portfolio grew to $18 million, Ploetz said. After loans were cleaned up, business lending got off the ground two years ago. Property flippers and office buildings are now two growing demands, Ploetz said. The credit union has about $1.5 million in participation loans. Ploetz said he knows that at some point, the credit union will go stronger with business loans and is considering partnering with a local CUSO to make it happen. That’s how the CU managed its student loan program and will be the case when it debuts 30-year mortgages. On the investment and financial planning side, Centurion tends to see a lot of baby boomers. A group of 40 police officers recently retired and sought help with loan and retirement plan restructuring. Scenarios where widows are left behind to handle finances for the first time and new entries into the stock market are common ones, Ploetz noticed. “We don’t want them to have loans all their lives,” said Geiss, who oversaw the first Plan America program in Indiana. That entity later became MEM- Once grappling with a 4% loan delinquency rate, Kris Ploetz (right), presiBERS Financial Services. “We dent of Centurion FCU, vowed to turn things around. Greg Geiss, vice encourage [members] to have president of lending (left) has earned a reputation with members for his more on the assets’ side. We’re empathy and helping them stay on track. big on ‘pay yourself first.’” Centurion tries to walk that fine line between Even though the average embracing the industry’s changing dynamics and keepage of Centurion’s 3,500-member base is 45 from the ing a firm hold on why credit unions were formed in police, sheriff and ex-military set, the credit union is the first place. aiming to expand its outreach to the 25 to 45-year old “We’ve got to be that financial institution where crowd, Ploetz said. A new Gold Visa rewards card, lines they are not afraid to walk in and say ‘we’re having of credit and payroll deduction are a few of the lures to some problems,’” Geiss said. “One of our mottos is findwoo them. ing a way or making a way. That doesn’t mean go out“Generation Y is not interested in the loyalty facside of our policies. The key thing is when we earn tor,” Geiss said. “They want it quick but we got to make their loyalty and trust, we will be the first they come them realize the importance of meeting face to face to in good times and bad.” with us. With texting and going online, that’s going to —msamaad@cutimes.com be our biggest challenge.” Amid Turmoil, Small and Medium CU Mergers Remain an Option By JIM RUBENSTEIN CU Times Senior Correspondent VANCOUVER, Wash. — Small and medium-sized credit unions, given constraints on asset growth, should keep an open mind to the merger option regardless of the upheaval in financial markets. That was a message given to Washington CU executives by a panel of merger veterans who also warned that economic conditions don’t look to improve through the rest of 2008 and perhaps into early 2009. “Some credit union boards just refuse to look at consolidation, but when you have a difficult economy as it is now, it has to be considered,” declared Marla Shepard, president/CEO of California Coast CU of San Diego. It is important “to look at what is best for the member” and a merger with a like-minded CU may be the solution, said Shepard, who was joined on the panel by CEOs Robert Schumacher, MountainCrest CU of Everett, Wash.; Thomas Miller, of Affinity Group CU, Pontiac, Mich.; and moderator Robert Harvey, Seattle Metropolitan CU. The group spoke during a session of the Washington Credit Union League’s annual meeting held Sept. 19. Miller said Detroit-area CUs like his are now coping with the negative impact of a depressed auto market “and, with so many members losing their jobs, we thought that a partnership” among three CUs with similar structures would work well. That partnership, said Miller, was born 15 months with two other suburban Detroit CUs in which their identities are retained under the Pontiac CU charter. The other two CUs include the former Crestwood CU of Garden City, Mich., and Municipal Health Services CU of Pontiac. In a different merger scenario, Schumacher, the CEO of the newly rebranded MountainCrest CU, described a combination last February of Educational Community CU, also of Everett, into Snohomish County PUD CU to form the $90 million MountainCrest made effective May 1. MountainCrest now occupies a new $1.8 million headquarters building in Arlington, Wash., and, in a twist, ended up taking back its old building that had been bought by Educational Community, said Schumacher. “We decided a merger would be the logical arrangement,” said Schumacher, a past director of the National Credit Union Foundation. He maintained that for any two CUs to pursue a consolidation “it is important that the two boards have the right attitude and can be blended.” Shepard, whose $1.8 billion CU Bob Harvey, CEO of Seattle Metropolitan CU, moderated a panel on underwent a merger with First Future mergers. Participating, left to right, were Texas A&M Professor CU in April, said CU boards need to be William Brown; Robert Schumacher, CEO of MountainCrest CU of open-minded about mergers. When asked whether conditions for Everett, Wash.; Marla Shepard, president/CEO of California Coast Southern California CUs are showing CU of San Diego; and Thomas Miller, CEO of Affinity Group CU, improvement, Shepard said the cur- Pontiac, Mich. rent spate of delinquencies, charge-offs cial turmoil does provide significant opportunities for and foreclosures does not bode well, CUs. certainly for the remainder of 2008. CUs, he said, are poised to weather the current eco“The bankruptcies haven’t slowed down and until nomic storm because of its conservative approach to things settle down” more troubled times are in the offlending with the industry well-positioned to provide ing, said Shepard, whose own CU reported a $2.2 milaccess to fairly priced credit for members. lion first half loss. Still, she said, CUs like hers are “What we do now, when times are tough, will define seeing a deposit influx from troubled Washington us going forward,” said Colby. When the industry looks Mutual, which has an extensive real estate operation back on recent events and what occurs in the future, “I in the San Diego market. want the leaders in Washington, D.C., to say ‘boy, we’re Another speaker at the Washington league meeting, glad we have credit unions.’” David Colby, chief economist for CUNA Mutual Group, —jrubenstein@cutimes.com said the uncertainty associated with Wall Street finan- Credit Union Times, October 1, 2008 cutimes.com http://www.cutimes.com
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