Wescom CU Opens 50th Southern California Branch

PASADENA, Calif. – Wescom Credit Union announced a milestone Monday–the opening of its 50th Southern California branch in the city of Santa Barbara. The newest Santa Barbara office is the fourth Wescom branch in Santa Barbara County and the second to open in the city. Wescom said the expansion is part of an ongoing strategy to significantly increase its number of branches by 2010. It said it has more than doubled its number of branch locations over the past five years in an effort to serve its large field of membership, which stretches from Santa Barbara County to San Diego County. “Our most important motivation in building new branches is to make it easier for members to do business with Wescom,” Darren Williams, Wescom’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “At the same time, branch visibility increases awareness in the community at large. We place our traditional branches in busy retail areas, and more than a quarter of our branches are in supermarkets, which gives them exposure to a large number of non-members.” Currently, Wescom has 31 traditional branches and 19 in-store branches.