Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • May 13, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 17 6.17-23 NEW UPGRADED TICKET OPTIONS BUY NOW BUBBA WATSON FRANCESCO MOLINARI JUSTIN THOMAS JASON DAY BROOKS KOEPKA BRYSON DECHAMBEAU Connecticut greenlit its New Haven request. Since then, a number of other Connecticut co-ops swapped for state charters. The NCUA also recently eased restrictions on federal credit unions' abil- ity to expand their membership. In addition to American Eagle's Enfield branch on Elm Street, less than five minutes from the Massachusetts border, it recently opened its newest branch in Avon, on West Street. That branch is 25 miles from the Massa- chusetts border. All 19 American Eagle branches/ ATM locations are in Connecticut. American Eagle already serves about 1,500 west- ern Massachu- setts members from its Enfield office, Kennedy said. They were customers prior to the recent ex- pansion through their connection to Pratt & Whitney or because they pre- viously lived or worked in Connecticut. American Eagle also is eyeing a North Haven location, he said. Driving the expansion aims of Ameri- can Eagle and other credit unions is the existence of a digital infrastructure link- ing them to their members. Kennedy and other industry experts say they are eager to leverage digital links that make it easy for their depositors to apply, and credit unions to approve, auto, home-eq- uity or other loans and financial services via smartphones or computers. CUNA's Schenk said credit unions are "all in'' on technology used to remotely and conveniently deliver products and services to depositors. Ruffled feathers Meantime, the latest market- widening push by one of Con- necticut's biggest credit unions has again stirred up calls from some bankers to strip the member cred- it co-ops of their not-for-profit sta- tus, which shields them from pay- ing federal taxes on their income. Martin J. Geitz, president and CEO of Simsbury Bank, noted that American Eagle is a well-run institu- tion and among a handful of Connecti- cut credit unions with assets of $100 million or more. Smaller co-ops, Geitz said, adhere closely to their charters of serving a limited subset of custom- ers, like the aerospace workers at Pratt and Sikorsky Aircraft who were among American Eagle's early members. But many other credit unions across the nation have recast their bylaws to troll a larger community or affinity base for members. Yet, even as their member ranks swell to deliver such profit-generating products as auto, personal and home- equity loans, and such services as bill- paying and fund transfers, they are shielded from state and federal taxes. "It really begs the question of why they aren't being treated like banks, and pay taxes,'' said Geitz, who co- chairs the legislative committee for the Connecticut Bankers Association and is past president of the Connecticut Com- munity Bankers Association. Credit unions, however, dismiss the criticisms, particularly "coming from an industry that just got a $30 billion tax break in the 2017 federal tax reform,'' Schenk said. Among the benefits co-ops provide is helping to fill a gap left by an increasingly consolidated banking industry, he said. American Eagle's recently opened Avon branch, for example, is in space that formerly was a Farmington Bank branch before that lender merged last year with People's United Bank. "There's plenty for everybody,'' American Eagle's Kennedy said of the bank-credit union scrap for deposi- tors. "The more you define a market, the less geographic boundaries play a significant role.'' American Eagle Financial Credit Union financial snapshot Members 146,064 Full-time employees 288 Total assets $1.9B 2018 Loan, investment and other income $55.1M 2018 Margin (Net income) $13M Source: National Credit Union Administration CT CU League CEO Nowacki leaving J ill Nowacki, CEO of the Con- necticut Credit Union League (CCUL) in Meriden the last five- plus years, is exiting her post at the statewide association as of May 15. Nowacki's impending departure was announced during the league's 85th annual meeting May 6 at the Connect- icut Conven- tion Center in downtown Hartford. The league pro- vides advo- cacy and other services for Connecticut credit unions. Reasons for Nowacki's departure, as well as her future plans, were not disclosed. Nowacki joined CCUL in fall 2013 from Oregon, where she worked for Maps Credit Union as vice president of development and as executive di- rector of its community foundation. She also was an executive at the Credit Union National Association and was posted to several individual credit unions, as president and CEO. At the time, Nowacki replaced Tony Emerson, who left to run a Massa- chusetts credit union as CEO. Jill Nowacki

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