MIDDLETOWN, Penn. -
"I'll miss the contact with the members and with staff," said Fox, 64, who will retire in July 2008, an event that will coincide with his 65th birthday. "I'll miss talking to members and having them tell me what a difference Mid-Atlantic Corporate made in helping their operations."
Mid-Atlantic Corporate's good reputation among it's 700 member CUs is the result of hard work and significant growth during the 19 years Fox ran the now $3.5-billion institution. During that period, the corporate credit union evolved from a small, plain-vanilla institution exclusively serving Pennsylvania credit unions to a complex corporate entity with full services and members in every state.
"When I came here in 1989, Mid-Atlantic had no computers other than a small desktop model used by one of the administrative assistants," Fox said. "Now we have millions of dollars' worth of hardware and software and 20 people in our IT department. What's more, our in-house system allows us to be more reactive to members' needs."
Mid-Atlantic Corporate's IT strength forms the backbone of its member service profile. In 1989 the corporate was focused on being a liquidity facilitator, lending and investing money for its members. Today, that service profile has grown to include share draft processing and the establishment of a marketing department and accountant manager program. Mid-Atlantic Corporate also is the largest ACH receipt processor in the Federal Reserve System's third district and, through its CUSO, MY CU Services, provides electronic bill payment services.
The growth of services coincided with overall growth of Mid-Atlantic Corporate, which saw its nine employees grow to 110 and its $380 million in assets grow to the current $3.5 billion during Fox's tenure. That same period was also witness to profound changes in the corporate credit union system, not the least of which was NCUA's 1994 decision to nationalize corporate credit union fields of membership to foster increased competition and better service to natural-person credit unions.
"We went from total cooperation to a competitive situation, which was a profound change for all of us," Fox said. "However, we've been successful in working that out."
Mid-Atlantic Corporate further benefited when NCUA in 1995 asked the institution to merge Capital Corporate FCU, better known as CapCorp, into its membership after the regulator has placed the failing corporate into conservatorship. Mid-Atlantic Corporate acquired members in Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, and from among NAFCU's membership in the merger, the executive said.
Fox, who will be succeeded by senior staff member Jay R. Murray when he steps down, will become more active on the small 17-acre farm he owns near Middletown, where something always needs doing.
"I have six head of beef cattle, soon to be seven," the Camden, N.J. native proudly says. "There's one due any day now."
From the people thing to the livestock thing, Fox is looking ahead to a very active retirement.
