BY THE NUMBERS: Wright Patt Credit Union Inc.
270,000 members, up 11.3 percent year-over-year
$1.8 billion dollar value of loan balances, up 29 percent YOY
$2.4 billion in deposits held, up 4.5 percent YOY
1.6 percent return on assets expected in 2013
$7 million total dividends to be paid to members for 2013 from excess earnings, up from $6 million in 2012
$2.7 billion in total assets, up 7.3 percent YOY
26 branch offices, including net new branches added in 2013 in Springboro and Columbus
563 full-time equivalent employees; total employees full- and part-time is 607
SOURCE: credit union officials
KEY QUOTES
Wright-Patt Credit Union CEO Doug Fecher on the Springfield branch:
“That member center is one of our strongest member centers.”
“I think what you’ll see over time is if we’re in central Ohio, Columbus, that I-70 corridor right through Springfield is something that we’ll be interested in filling out over time” with more service locations.
Wright-Patt Credit Union Inc. is closing an eventful 2013, and will start 2014 moving to a new, larger headquarters building in Beavercreek.
Ohio’s largest credit union by assets, with locations in Springfield and Urbana, not-for-profit Wright-Patt is about to turn in a high-growth year as it embarks on a Columbus expansion.
This year, the Greene County-based credit union saw membership grow more than 11 percent to currently almost 270,000 member-customers, according to credit union officials. Loan balances year-to-date have grown 29 percent to $1.8 billion issued and outstanding including auto, home, student and business loans. And total assets have grown more than 7 percent from the end of 2012 to approximately $2.7 billion as of the end of November.
Results include myCUmortgage, a company owned by the credit union that does mortgage processing for about 170 other credit unions across the country.
“I think we have a very strong brand in the marketplace,” said Doug Fecher, the credit union’s president and chief executive officer.
Members “recognize we are not-for-profit, we give the money back at the end of the year, and therefore, they’re going to get a pretty fair shake here so they come to us a lot,” Fecher said.
As a financial cooperative, earnings are reinvested in the business. The credit union is returning this year $7 million of excess earnings as dividends paid to members.
Earlier in 2013, Wright-Patt Credit Union introduced new Personal Teller Machines, devices similar to an ATM that can accept deposits and dispense cash, but which also have video technology to connect to remotely located tellers. The video technology was placed in the drive-through of a newly built Springfield branch, a relocated office, as well as a new branch added in Springboro, the first office in Warren County.
Approximately $2 million was invested to open this year a new free-standing Springfield branch on North Bechtle Avenue.
“The reason behind the video banking, the personal teller machines, is to try to reduce the cost of the routine transaction and then take the savings and reinvest it in the areas and the relationships that allow us to help members manage their money better,” Fecher said.
“What we’re really emphasizing and investing in is the transaction that says how can we help you save money on your mortgage, how can we help you save money on your car loan? You’re sending your kid to school? Did you know that we have this private student loan that might be able to help you out?” he said.
If customer acceptance of the video technology stays strong, next year’s strategy is to put more Personal Teller Machines in more branches, and maybe more non-branch locations such as a mall, he said.
In the last year Wright-Patt also announced plans to re-enter the Columbus market. The credit union once had branches in the Columbus area that it gained through acquisition and were closed more than 10 years ago. New plans were announced this year to open five branches by the end of 2014 in Franklin County, and the first location there opened this month.
Columbus was the number one requested area by members to expand to, Fecher said.
When the federal government shutdown in October forced some Wright-Patterson Air Force Base workers off the job, the credit union offered special loan and other assistance programs to members working there.
“I think people became apprehensive. Right leading up to it, during it and even shortly after it, our loan application volume fell,” said Tim Mislansky, the credit union’s senior vice president and chief lending officer. “It’s since recovered back to the numbers before the shutdown, but people were uncertain about their paychecks, so they weren’t going out buying cars and making commitments.”
Most recently, it was announced that Wright-Patt has bought new headquarter offices in Beavercreek at 3560 Pentagon Blvd. for $22.75 million. The headquarters will move from the current location at 2455 Executive Park Blvd. in Fairborn to Pentagon Centre by the end of March.
The Fairborn offices are for sale. If sold, the credit union branch at the same site will stay, Fecher said.
“We knew this year … that we were going to be flat out of space in this building,” Fecher said during an interview at the Fairborn offices.
Currently the mortgage group is leasing space in another building off Presidential Drive in Fairborn.
The new building is “roughly twice as big as this building and that building combined, so we think it meets our goal of allowing us 10 years or so growth before we would run out of space over there,” Fecher said.
Going forward, the goal for next year is “to focus on a continuation of what we’ve been doing,” Fecher said.
“We have to get the Columbus market up and running with four new places. We’re making investments in the mortgage market. We would like to be the first thought of everybody in this town of where to go to get a mortgage loan,” he said.
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