New Year’s resolution: Take more risk
From conservative shop to risk-taker, Infinity FCU shares its five-year transformation into new loan products and C-D-E credit tier members.
Five years ago, Infinity Federal Credit Union ($349.2M, Portland, ME) was a conservative financial institution, even by the standards of a traditionally conservative industry. The credit union primarily focused on higher credit tier paper, principally made mortgage loans, and, at its peak, carried more than $100 million in investments on its books.
In 2013, current chief risk officer Sandy Cloutier assumed the role of interim CEO for nearly 12 months while Infinity looked for an external replacement. The change in CEO brought changes to the credit union’s philosophy on risk. Infinity had been turning away potential members, local people whose livelihood the credit union could positively impact. At the same time, Infinity was losing members. Between the first quarter of 1998 and the first quarter of 2013, the credit union lost nearly 6,000 members.
“We were very conservative,” Cloutier says. “We needed new members, and we wanted to get out in our community and help our membership.”
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