SWAINSBORO, Ga. — Piney Grove Community FCU here keeps pen-and-carbon-paper ledgers and isn't on the World Wide Web - it can't afford the technologies many take for granted.
"We're all manual and have been for the last 40 years," said James Green, manager at the $51,000 CU. "That's all we know, and it hasn't been a problem." Green thinks automation could ease operations at the CU, however. "We'd like to add computer and programs, but we can't afford it. We wouldn't have enough money to keep everything updated."
That's why the NCUA is working to reverse the digital destiny of "computerless" credit unions like Piney Grove Community.
"Automation plays a vital role in the enhancement of financial services to members, which usually leads to the growth of the credit union," said the NCUA's Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives (OSCUI).
In an age of credit union iPhone applications and online account funding, it may be difficult to believe that NCUA Call Reports list about 100 FCUs, with average assets of about $600,000, operating without automation. In fact, some of those credit unions say they like it that way.
In 2008, CU Journal reported that the OSCUI charged a working group of regional and central staff with the goal of automating all FCUs. "Their role was to perform research to determine the barriers keeping small credit unions from embracing technology," the OSCUI said.
In February, the working group identified nearly 40 credit unions that were "viable" candidates for automation: those that were "financially sound, well-managed, and interested in either e-filing reports or becoming computerized," said the OSCUI, which was working to provide Credit Union Journal with the name of those CUs as this article went to press.
The OSCUI did not confirm that Piney Grove Community was one of the viable CUs, although Green said that the NCUA had provided him with free computers in the past. "But they were lemons. They didn't work."
The OSCUI said it developed strategies that will allow it, "as time permits," to assist the 40 FCUs. Strategies include training, financial assistance and individualized assistance. The group does not have any funding earmarked for the project; however, low-income designated CUs could get technical assistance grants via the NCUA's Community Development Revolving Loan Fund, or other resources, the OSCUI said.
Computerless CUs don't have the money to automate, or they lack computer skills or interest because they are overwhelmed by demands of running the business, according to the OSCUI. None of those criteria quite describe the $2.3-milllion Yosemite CU of Yosemite, Calif., however. "We're basically not automated and not interested," said Richard Moehring, CEO. "We run a ledger card system for each member and figure the average daily balance to each ledger card. We use pretty high-tech carbon paper on a peg board."
Yosemite CU last bought the carbon stock in 1986, he said. "I have no clue as to how we'll replace it. When it runs out, I'm running out."
The CU has a "dilapidated" electrical system and suffers many electrical outages, including one that lasted 11 days last summer-making it foolish to rely on computers, Moehring explained. "If it were ever mandatory that we couldn't get by on a manual system, we'd liquidate or merge." Computers and maintenance would be expensive, continued Moehring. "That would mean less profit and fewer dividends to the member."
The regional NCUA office always tells Moehring that he's the first in the region to file his quarterly 5300 Call Report, which he completes manually, he said. "We're not excited about switching from something that has worked since 1937."
