St. Helens Community CU President/CEO Brooke Van Vleet discusses the CU's road to commercial lending success.
SAVANNAH, Ga. – When it comes to commercial lending success and a credit union's size, bigger doesn't always mean better. Just ask St. Helens Community Credit Union President/CEO Brooke Van Vleet, who described the ups and downs of the credit union's 30-year commercial lending journey in a breakout session at the 2018 CUBG National Business Conference last week.
The $220 million SHCU, located in the quiet Columbia River-adjacent community of St. Helens, Ore., is grandfathered into the MBL cap due to its long history of commercial lending in the area, and maintains a lending portfolio of approximately one-third commercial, one-third consumer and one-third real estate. From 2013 to 2016, Van Vleet explained, SHCU resolved a few problematic loans, and started placing more emphasis on risk and the credit union's needs when structuring new loans. The credit union faced some challenges along the way, including a notable loss during the resolution of one particular loan, but it began returning to profitability after 2016, bouncing back from an ROA of 0.52% and net worth of 7.52% in 2016 to an ROA of 1.04%and net worth of 8.79% in 2018 year-to-date.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
