CHANTILLY, Va. — The government shutdown may be over, but Justice FCU executives say the slow process of re-starting the government and getting payroll going again means that federal employees will be feeling the impact for a while longer.
Since rolling out offers to aid members affected by the shutdown — including low- or no-interest furlough loans, penalty-free CD withdrawals and more—Justice FCU has made more than $10 million in short-term furlough loans. CEO Peter Sainato said his CU’s call center "has been inundated with requests" to the point that it expanded the call center’s hours to add six hours on Saturday.
"We made the decision based on the overwhelming response to our offers that we needed to open on Saturday and extend those hours," said Sainato. "We were flooded with calls all day Saturday. We typically do not have much of a wait time—less than 30 seconds is very common, even less than 15 seconds is more common—and now our wait times were like 35 minutes. We’ve processed thousands of applications for assistance and over $10 million in no-cost furlough loans. We’re very busy."
Sainato said that cost was not a factor in whether or not to expand the hours. Rather, he said, the decision was about providing additional service to the credit union’s members.
"We could not accommodate the demand that was coming in through the channels, and a lot of members were getting 'all circuits busy.' Our call volume was more than double, and we needed that extra time to help members."
Justice FCU's shutdown offers were similar to those rolled out just before sequestration hit earlier this year. Sequestration assistance, however, never really caught on with members. Sainato said he believes the difference is that many still have not had their pay severely impacted by the Sequester, yet those employees who did get checks during the shutdown (for work done prior to the shutdown) received approximately only 60% of their pay, "so the reality of the shutdown was more evident" and played a bigger role in how members’ wallets were hit.
Even with the government re-opening for business as of Thursday morning, Sainato said that there may not be enough time for the United States to process federal employees’ payroll before their next payday. As such, Justice FCU intends to continue to offer its shutdown assistance programs "because it does not appear that the government will have enough time to get the next payroll out. I don’t’ know that for certain, but it’s looking that way."
Despite making loans of nearly $1 million per day, Justice FCU is not expecting to see a significant windfall from this recent success, in part because the majority of the loans are priced at 0% interest.
"But what has occurred is that we’ve got hundreds and hundreds of new members that have joined, and that’s been very positive," said Sainato. "We've been able to tell the story of who we are and who we serve and why we do what we do, so that’s been very positive."
