It took a while but Oregon's Wauna Federal Credit Union is celebrating NCUA approval of a field of membership expansion across the Columbia River into Washington to add Pacific County.
“We're quite pleased but the process we found out is not a simple one,” observed Robert Blumberg, president/CEO of the $130 million Wauna FCU of Clatskanie, Ore.
Wauna said its expanded FOM encompassing a rural county of 20,000 would permit the Oregon credit union to serve a large number of underserved members.
There are no immediate plans to add a branch in Pacific County “but we may look at other delivery alternatives including mobile units or satellite offices,” said Blumberg.
It is the first time during Blumberg's tenure since 2007 that the Wauna credit union has applied for expanded FOM.
Wauna first applied to the NCUA last November with a second application with more detail requested in February. The agency apparently streamlined its rules last August permitting regional offices to approve applications with fewer than 1 million in population, said Blumberg. Previously, he said, such applications were dispatched to Washington headquarters with later delegation to regional directors.
“Our second application with more information was 35 pages long,” noted Blumberg.
“The credit union had to first demonstrate its financial soundness and ability to serve and additional geographic territory, plus present a written, detailed plan to outline the resources that would be used to effectively serve Pacific County,” he said.
That included an advertising strategy, public relations and community outreach plus targeting specific segments of the population who may not be served by other financial institutions.
“Our management team and the board of directors conducted significant research and analysis to prepare our plan,” Blumberg said.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
