Canadian Credit Union boosts growth by starting a national bank

Meridian CU executes on its strategy to offer its value proposition to customers outside its province.

Meridian Credit Union has set—and achieved—ambitious membership growth goals, expanding membership by 8.9 percent in 2018. But even the largest credit union in the province of Ontario has had a hard time connecting with consumers who aren’t won over by the cooperative model of financial services, so it is now pursuing a novel strategy—launching a full-service digital bank with a national market.

Set to open this spring as a fully owned subsidiary of the Toronto-based credit union, motusbank will offer the full suite of financial products and services, including an end-to-end digital mortgage origination and fulfillment platform, already available to Meridian CU members.

“Our primary strategic intent has been to bring the Meridian value proposition to Canadians outside of Ontario,” says Bill Maurin, president/CEO of the $20.6 billion credit union serving 339,000 members. But motusbank is also developing a “softer” marketing plan targeting consumers in Meridian CU’s home province, where 43 percent of nonmembers say they would not consider joining a credit union and only 20 percent say they would. Those rates are, respectively, the highest and lowest in comparison to other provinces in a survey conducted by the Canadian Credit Union Association.

 

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