Coast Capital On Weathering The Pandemic And Planning For The Future

Credit unions’ digital shifts will continue in the new year, but physical branches should still factor into CUs’ future plans, says Nancy McNeill, senior vice president of Operations at Coast Capital Savings Federal Credit Union. In the Credit Union Tracker, McNeill highlights how CUs can and are leveraging physical locations to boost digital-first member experiences.

Everyday operations ground to a halt for most consumers, businesses and financial institutions (FIs) when the pandemic began, and credit unions (CUs) were no exception.

Social distancing and stay-at-home mandates threw normal business operations into disarray and forced CUs to adapt on the fly to meet consumers’ newfound digital preferences and give staff the tools needed for remote operations.

Many CUs struggled to achieve such quick pivots, but those that had already invested in the necessary technologies and security infrastructures were able to make the shift. CUs’ production units could not afford to miss deadlines with members’ financial needs at stake, said Nancy McNeill, senior vice president of Operations at Coast Capital Savings Federal Credit Union.

Coast Capital, which is based in British Columbia, Canada, and serves 593,000 members through 52 branches, marshalled many of its resources to help employees operate securely from home when the health crisis began, McNeill explained. The CU tapped its security and technology divisions to receive the guidance and equipment to make this a reality.

“We were able to get everybody working from home within 48 hours with little to no disruption,” she explained. “We had secure measures in which individuals connected to all the systems that they needed to work with.”

The pandemic has highlighted CUs’ need to invest in digital and remote solutions, but many of these trends are far from new, McNeill explained. Innovating members’ experiences has been a priority for CUs for many years, with CUs paying special attention to rolling out offerings and features via online and mobile channels.

Digital Banking’s Rise In The CU Space

McNeill said Coast Capital, like numerous other CUs, has seen robust growth in the number of members who have gone digital during the pandemic. She said she also expects this trend to have staying power, with members’ shifts toward online and app-based offerings predicted to rise through 2021. Providing such solutions is crucial for CUs aiming to attract members who are becoming increasingly technology-driven, she noted.

“We don’t want to stop anything that is related to the member experience … and the things that they need to become financially stable as the years go on,” McNeill said. “We will be looking at ways to move across the country in a digital fashion.”

She said mobile and online banking use has been particularly noteworthy among members who previously preferred to do business at brick-and-mortar branches. These members, many of whom were older and less inclined to modify their banking habits to accommodate new technologies, suddenly found themselves with little choice but to do so during the pandemic.

“I think, for those individuals that were maybe a little hesitant — who were used to going into the branch and had no impetus for them to change — all of a sudden, to stay safe … banking via mobile or online made sense,” she said.

These broad changes and pivots in members’ preferences are significantly impacting CUs’ innovation plans, and physical branches are poised to witness some of the most dramatic changes.

The CU — And CU Branch — Of The Future

Many CUs, including Coast Capital, have put their physical expansion plans and operational changes on hold during the health crisis. Coast Capital opened its only new branch of the year in July, and McNeill said there are no immediate plans for more. She also said the CU had been planning to expand its branch hours, but viral case surges and a partial lockdown in British Columbia earlier this year ended that endeavor. Coast Capital has since begun to reconsider its plans for branches as a whole and what they can offer to members.

“The organization has already talked about, ‘What is the branch of the future?’” she explained. “Most people are doing routine transactions online or by a mobile device, so what should that branch to look like?”

McNeill said branch locations will continue to be viable parts of CUs’ business models despite members’ decidedly digital shifts. Coast Capital transformed its branches into virtual advice centers when many were forced to close, for example. Staff located there were tasked with proactively reaching out to customers to ask how they were doing and discover whether the CU could do anything to help them.

“It has proven to be extremely beneficial, and our membership has really appreciated that,” she said. “We’ve had some phenomenal interactions and successes around that, so it will definitely be a practice that we will keep going.”

The pandemic has dramatically altered CUs’ approaches to innovation and what they envision for their operations in the future. Consumers’ increasing appetites for digital banking solutions are prompting many CUs to roll out technologies and features that can satisfy these new needs, but physical branches will still play a critical role in outreach and other customer service efforts.

Ensuring success in the years ahead will require CUs to take comprehensive looks at their digital and physical expansion strategies and determine how to best to balance their initiatives for members.