PORTLAND, Ore. — When asked to identify why it is such a successful lender, Sunset Science Park FCU believes one reason rises above all others: common sense.
"We've tried to put something on [the cause of our success]. What is it?" said Judy Makela, CEO of the $25-million CU. "And the one thing we keep going back to is that we use common sense in our lending, and we listen to our members."
SSPFCU was recently ranked among the leaders in its peer group in Callahan & Associates' Return to Borrower rankings.
Makela said SSPFCU has avoided adding many fees, generating income from loan interest, and has worked to add new products. After maxing out on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages for instance, it rolled out five- and 10-year balloon mortgages. It holds all the mortgages in-house.
"We do also have the long-terms; we do have the HELOCS," said Makela. "And we used common sense getting into these things."
Makela, a 30-year veteran at the CU, said the newest employee at the credit union has been there for 10 years. "I think that helps," she said "It builds trust that our members see the same faces. Our success is staying small and knowing our members."
Home values in Portland have generally remained more stable than in other markets, noted Makela. "Every six months we pull values," she noted. "Most of our loans are firsts. We're able to do everything the big guys can do. It just works. Several years ago, when we first got into this when all the institutions were doing the 125 (LTV)-plus, we did get into that. We had a real cap on that. But it wasn't doing our members any good."
The CU avoided subprime loans. "If we're here looking out for our members, it didn't make sense," she said "We would not have gotten a person into a house if we thought in a couple of years they wouldn't have been able to make a payment."
The 2,000-member CU also does a lot of housekeeping, Makela said. "We take the time to call our members, even the ones who have just the minimum $5 in their accounts, and ask if can offer them any help. If not, we sometimes close the account," she said. "We could very easily have 5,000 members with $5 accounts. The 2,000 members that do business with us truly do business with us."
Makela' advice for other CUs? "You have to know your limits. I truly feel that we are cautious."
