Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 19, 2025 11 per month the card is used. It also created an interest-bearing checking account that offers a refund of up to $20 per month on fees incurred at non-Ellafi ATMs. Then there's Wellness Plus, a financial-management tool that helps customers identify their goals and track their progress. Wiemert stresses these programs, as well as others being developed, are not exclusively for women. "It's not just for women, but for the other people in their lives — husbands, sons, brothers," he said. "But we do feel like it's important to focus on women just because of their role." He said research shows that women will be "more of the financial decision-makers in relationships, and a lot of women are heading a single- parent household. So, they need assis- tance in doing all of these things." Ellafi also supports local women's community organizations, including Girls Inc. of Central Connecticut and New Horizons Domestic Violence Center in Middletown. The credit union is also committed, Wiemert said, to diversifying its volun- teer board of directors and supervi- sory committee, which currently are male dominated. "Their current makeup does not reflect our existing community, or the community that we want to serve," he said. To address that, the board plans to add "associate" members, who won't have voting power but can attend W H E R E I N D U S T R Y M E E T S I N N O VAT I O N M AY 2 8 - 29, 2 0 2 5 Y A L E I N N O V A T I O N S U M M I T meetings to learn the process, and who would be eligible to join the board when a position opens. Ellafi may also invite women to advise the board on women's issues, he said. 'Digital era' Dowd, of Rebellion Group, said that while Ellafi's decision to focus on women has merit, most banks and credit unions his firm has worked with want to appeal to a younger generation. Rebellion has been working with GSB and Eastern Connecticut Savings Bank on their planned rebranding to Ascend Bank. They are joining forces with the intent of growing into a regional lender, he said. Combined, Ascend will be a $1.4 billion bank that offers commer- cial, business, personal and digital banking services to 25,000 clients. But they also chose to invest more in their "digital experience," Dowd said. "They were looking for a new brand to express that in a way, to engage new customers, but also retain the old ones," Dowd said. "That was the challenge they brought to us." He said the typical customer wants a local bank that knows them by name, but also has strong digital offerings. "We're in the digital era," he said. "We're post-COVID. We have a different banking experience, a different banking expectation. … The new brands either understand that and try to understand the modern consumer, or they don't." Shrinking credit union industry prompts need to differentiate Here's a breakdown of the number of CT credit unions over the past decade. NO. OF CT CREDIT UNIONS 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Source: National Credit Union Administration 120 100 80 60

• Cover