Hoosick Federal Credit Union Expanding And Changing Its Name
At the Credit Union’s Annual Meeting on March 1 HFCU President Jim Martinez told the members that in 2016 HFCU sought a significant enlargement of its charter area.
[private]Towards the end of December The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) granted the expanded charter, signifying the NCUA’s confidence that the management team and staff of HFCU can successfully carry out the plan outlined in their application, and that it will benefit the Credit Union’s current members.
The expanded area which the Credit Union will now serve includes more of Rensselaer County, All of Washington County and Bennington County, Vermont, and an area in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts including Williamstown, North Adams, and Adams. The new area gives the Credit Union the opportunity to serve over 184,000 members, almost nine times the size of the current charter area.
To reflect its expanded service area, the Credit Union is changing its name to Tri State Area Federal Credit Union. Its website, signage, and everything else that bears its name will soon be changed to the new name.
The Tri State Area Federal Credit Union (TSAFCU) will be opening a new office in Bennington, Vermont by the end of the year. TSAFCU has purchased land on Washington Avenue in Bennington and is in the process of planning and designing its new facility there.
The site where the new branch will be built is between the Sunnyside Diner and the Elks Club. The lot is 1.2 acres in size, with 175 feet of frontage on Washington Avenue. There will be plenty of room for parking, and a drive-through facility will be incorporated into the design.
After a year that saw a “hefty increase” in the Credit Union’s loan portfolio, President Martinez expressed to his management team the need to continue to strengthen the credit union so that it can keep up with the changing technology and ever-increasing regulations, and the team proposed seeking an expanded charter. Martinez and his team spent eight months preparing their application to the NCUA for the expanded charter, and preparing a detailed business plan for the expansion.
Martinez said he has believed for many years that Hoosick and Bennington have a lot in common and share a lot of commercial and social connections, and they should work together more, and not let the State line be a barrier to greater integration.
He said the demographics in Bennington are similar to those in Hoosick, and he expects that the same things that have led to the Credit Union’s success in Hoosick will allow them to succeed in Bennington. Although he acknowledges that Bennington is a competitive environment, with several banks and credit unions active there, Martinez said, “We are enthusiastic about taking on this challenge, and we have every reason to believe this will be a successful venture. We expect to have top-notch staff in Bennington that will be able to offer, as we do here, an unsurpassed level of member service.”
A staff that is both friendly and professional, willing to go the extra mile for the Credit Union’s members, and constantly striving to provide new services for its members, are some of the elements of the Credit Union’s success, according to Martinez. “Maintaining the hometown feel while continuing to modernize and grow will be a challenge,” said Martinez, “but I have confidence that our management team and our staff will rise to the challenge.” He said he thinks things like house calls and early morning meetings with members that have been the hallmark of the Credit Union’s success in Hoosick are not going to fall by the wayside as TSAFCU gets bigger, but getting bigger will allow the credit union to offer the latest technology such as better IT security, banking apps for cell phones, and the like.
The Tri State Area Federal Credit Union currently has about 3200 members, and has about $23 million in assets. It has almost tripled in size over the last 17 years. It began as the Wood Flong Credit Union in 1953, serving only the employees of that company. In 1975 it was granted a charter to serve the community in general, and in 1977 it was renamed the Hoosick Federal Credit Union. In 1987 it merged with Simco Employees Federal Credit Union, and in 2007 it merged with the Falls Federal Credit Union, and soon thereafter its charter was expanded to include several other Rensselaer County towns in addition to Hoosick. In 2016 the most recent charter expansion was approved by NCUA, and last month the name was changed to Tri State Area Federal Credit Union.
Martinez likes to see himself as a banker in the mold of George Bailey, from the film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He notes that when Hoosick was being clobbered with the PFOA crisis and other banks stopped writing mortgages, Hoosick FCU continued to write mortgages, and in his words, “refused to turn their back on the community.” And, he notes, they thrived by doing so – 2016 was an excellent year for the Credit Union. He said as the Credit Union expansion proceeds, he plans to continue to be guided by the spirit of George Bailey, and to strive to make the Credit Union the modern day version of the Bailey Building and Loan. [/private]