Let's start with an obscure cultural reference that would make even comedian Dennis Miller green with envy. To paraphrase the quickly-withdrawn Teen Talk Barbie discussing "math class" in 1992: Operations are tough. Well, this is especially true if you're a credit union in 2015.
You're racing to meet rising consumer expectations. You're working against major challenges to traditional revenue and business models. You're laboring to implement new technology. And you're struggling to find efficiency in everything you do. Meanwhile nothing is simple. Your members want to mobilize their interactions with you, but still want a robust branch presence. By the way, they want branches everywhere.
Delivering what your members want raises hard questions. But what if the answers were easy? Easy answers are not necessarily easy to come by, but a proven solution is shared branching.
The credit union movement did not build up the unique shared branching concept because branches are cheap and plentiful – it's quite the opposite! Branch transactions are declining and the cost of branches are going up. Yet they will not go away – they are changing.
It has, thus, become even more important for the branches credit unions have to be shared.
Sharing a branch will bring in more transactions – transactions that bring in revenue, unlike when your own member comes in to do a deposit or withdrawal. For credit unions reticent to close branches, opening their existing branches to shared branching is a way to bring in income and transactions. And, for credit unions considering closing branches, their solution is to join shared branching. The concept, in fact, provides a smooth transitional glide path for lowering branch count.
No matter what your branch strategy is – add branches, "transform" them, close them – the fact is your members are still going to "need" locations everywhere. You and your team could spend the next 40 years working through scenarios and never arrive at a satisfactory solution.
Or, you could participate in shared branching and solve your problem in a single decision. Your members would have access to their accounts at more than 5,000 branch locations and 2,200 self-service kiosks across the country – and you'd never have to build a single additional location. You'd also have access to the new world of mobile banking and P2P payment technology through, in the case of CO-OP Shared Branching, the same network that enables account transactions across branches. All would be integrated to make your work simpler, easier and more powerful.
This is, in the best sense of the term, the easy way out, and here's why you should consider the easy way out. Back in the day, credit unions could spend time and brainpower thinking about what to do next. In 2015, doing things the hard way is going to drag you down. Choosing to streamline and simplify your choices, and in turn your operations, is not actually making the easy choice. It's making the necessary choice.
When every question of enhancement, expansion, innovation and efficiency becomes an operational difficulty, progress is impossible. Imagine trying to do your current job using only an old phone, a landline and a 120-baud-modem-equipped desktop computer. You can't.
Similarly, you can't gear up for the future without making operations easier now. Choosing the easy route, among them becoming involved in the movement's nationwide shared branching network, should absolutely be on your list of must-haves for every project you embark on in 2015. Even when operations are tough, your choice should be easy.
Sarah Canepa Bang is chief strategy officer for CO-OP Shared Branching. She can be reached at 800-782-9042, ext. 1205 or [email protected].
© 2025 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.
