Hurricanes Validate SharedBranching

SAN FRANCISCO - (09/28/05) - The mass dislocation of credit unionmembers caused by Hurricane Katrina, and now Hurricane Rita, hasproved a big boon to the shared branching concept. Dozens of creditunion executives at CUNA's Future Forum said they may have beendubious about the concept before but learned its value after thestorms, which scattered hundreds of thousands of members fromproximity to home branches and ATMs. Several credit unionexecutives said they have joined a shared branching network sinceKatrina hit because it will provide access to financial services totheir own members during the next natural disaster. "More creditunions were able to continue serving their members or others(because of shared branching)," said one CEO Tuesday during theconference.