PITTSFIELD, Mass. - There is no secret to being ranked as one of the best credit unions in the United States-just stick to the movement's core values and take a good long look at your operating costs and efficiencies, according to one top-ranked CU.
Greylock FCU SVP John Bissell said abiding by the central mission of credit unions and having a board that is in sync with staff and members is what propelled the Pittsfield-based CU to the top of the Callahan rankings for credit unions with between $1 billion and $2.5 billion in assets and eighth in the $1 billion-plus category.
"It's not rocket science, it is just good fundamental credit union stuff," said Bissell. "What we do at Greylock is just about what all other credit unions try to do as well, and that is try to give as much back to the membership as we can."
Over the last decade, everyone from the boardroom to the teller window at Greylock has stuck firm with its "manage for the member" philosophy. The CU has consistently gunned to provide lower loan rates, higher returns on deposits, lower fees, lower overhead costs and higher efficiencies. It is the last two that has propelled Greylock to the top.
Bissell conceded that slim margins may be a tough sell, but finding alternative sources of revenue and simply convincing the board of what the membership needs has allowed the credit union to push forward with a paradoxical game plan that requires the utmost faith in the staff and the benefits of technology.
"We have set ourselves a conflicting set of goals, so it creates a healthy tension in how we operate," he said. "We have the best employees in the business and we have to, because we have fewer of them per asset (than the competition)."
While most top performing credit unions on the Callahan list have a narrow focus, Greylock is actually community chartered. With its origins in the General Electric plants that used to dominate the employment landscape in western Massachusetts, Greylock, founded in 1935, expanded to cover the entire region about 15 years ago-but the institution has never looked beyond its home turf.
"Staying close to home has paid off for Greylock and our members," president Angelo Stracuzzi said in a statement. "People are looking for value more than ever. As the economy weakens, the people of Berkshire County are turning to Greylock as the hometown institution that can take care of all their needs."
The fact that it is not difficult to find Greylock in the community of 135,000 residents does not hurt either. Bissell said that while the credit union is not nearly the largest financial institution in the area, it does have the greatest geographic footprint with a large number of branches. Local focus and aggressive expansion in that marketplace is chief among the reasons the credit union has more than 62,000 members-nearly half of the entire market.
Despite the cost of a dozen branch offices and 15 ATMs, Greylock manages to keep overhead expenses down and retains nimbleness thanks in large part to the fact that it leases the majority of its facilities. In a time where real estate prices are plummeting across the country, not having the albatross of owning swathes of land and brick can pay off.
"We are paying all the expenses of those buildings, but it seems to keep us on a more flexible footing," said Bissell.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
