LAS VEGAS–Despite operating in one of the most distressed markets in the country, Clark County CU not only made a profit in 2008, it returned a dividend of more than $2.8 million to its members and maintained capital of more than 10%.
The $600-milllion CU’s secret? Keeping costs down.
Wayne Tew, CCCU’s CEO, told Credit Union Journal the main factor in the credit union’s successful 2008 was its low operating expense ratio. “Our loan losses are significant–and probably the highest since 1986–but we have been able to absorb those losses,” he said. “We only have six branches and we are very highly automated,” he said. “We have a high usage of home banking and direct deposit. We have a very high deposit-per-member rate: more than $14,000 per member. And, we have great select employer groups to work with.”
Roy Holmstrom, who is the credit union’s CFO and CIO, offered a number examples of the credit union’s cost-cutting strategies, from things as simple as ensuring all branches have the same models of printers, servers and computers to keeping its plastic cards in house.
“Not only do we service [our IT equipment] all ourselves, the servers and workstations we build ourselves,” Holmstrom said. “Buying a server from Dell is $25,000; but we can build one with the same capabilities for $15,000 to $18,000 depending on what we need it to do. And then we don’t have to pay outside for maintenance.”
Keeping the plastic in house reaped similar savings bringing the $3.60 per card it would spend with a vendor to $1.45.
them.”
To read more about how Clark County CU is cutting costs and other measures it is taking to remain profitable in this market,
