Press
CUCollaborate adds 15 new clients to its FOM software and consulting
La Capitol expands its reach with less headache
More and more credit unions are finding an easier path to field of membership expansion with CUCollaborate’s FOM consulting and mapping software. To be exact, 15 credit unions engaged CUCollaborate for FOM updates in the first half of 2019.
The $507 million La Capitol Federal Credit Union was one of those new clients. Executive Vice President of Member Services Dick Marshall explained that the credit union’s CEO, Michael Hooper, met CUCollaborate Founder/CEO Sam Brownell at an event and began preliminary discussions. Then, he continued, “We mapped out the areas that we wanted to target, and CUCollaborate was able to provide us with some great tools in doing that. I was really fascinated with the mapping system they’ve got, showing what was accessible and what your limits were.”
Brownell explained, “Field of membership can be a huge challenge for credit unions but determining the most strategic areas to serve can lead to great success. CUCollaborate does just that, and we guarantee we will get your FOM amendments approved. We were very pleased to help La Capitol move into the next phase of its journey to member service and growth.”
The NCUA was diligent throughout the application process to ensure a defensible FOM and the credit union’s willingness and ability to serve, but so was CUCollaborate. “CUCollaborate was open and willing to help us with templates of the application itself,” Marshall said, “and throughout the entire process, they were helping us tweak the application and provide additional information the NCUA was looking for.”
Marshall added, “The underserved area was more than 300 census tracts, which was a lot for us and the NCUA to wrap our heads around. One of the things that impressed me about Sam was going through the third revision of the application was when Sam actually flipped the scenario a little bit, using a different methodology to get the boundaries we were looking for, and that was successful. I was impressed that CUCollaborate didn’t just stay with the one method; they noticed there was an issue and they were able to adapt.”
In the end, the NCUA approved La Capitol’s underserved area expansion into 302 census tracts in the New Orleans Metairie, La., area, with a population of 642,420, according to the 2010 census. The expansion to the requested underserved area allows La Capitol to grow and use both its strengthened financial condition and economies of scale to improve the level and quality of services to our members. The New Orleans-Metairie area has significant unmet needs for financial services, especially in the economic depressed and underserved areas that La Capitol would serve through the requested expansion, where more than half of the residents live in poverty.
In addition to La Capitol, other credit unions engaging CUCollaborate this year include:
$70 million Bragg Mutual Federal Credit Union
$934 million AMOCO Federal Credit Union
$76 million Secured Advantage Federal Credit Union
$106 million Kraftman Federal Credit Union
$27 million United Arkansas Federal Credit Union
$171 million Treasury Department Federal Credit Union
$176 million The New Orleans Firemen’s Federal Credit Union
$95 million Atlantic Financial Federal Credit Union
$18 million Monmouth Federal Credit Union
$163 million Saint Lawrence Federal Credit Union
$159 million Jersey Shore Federal Credit Union
$189 million PARDA Federal Credit Union
$390 million Town & Country Federal Credit Union (ME)
$99 million SRI Federal Credit Union
“For credit unions, finding the optimal field of membership is critical to survival. FOM is one of the hurdles we can give credit unions a boost over to be able to serve more consumers as the best financial choice in the market,” Brownell concluded.
