Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com Worcester Business Journal • 2016 Central Mass By The Numbers 23 Banking & Finance Acton $1,049,787 Ashburnham $42,461 Ashland $513,799 Athol $179,055 Auburn $546,951 Ayer $196,995 Baldwinville $26,482 Barre $90,879 Bellingham $275,381 Berlin $152,690 Blackstone $89,969 Bolton $48,496 Boxborough $36,093 Boylston $30,836 Charlton $117,674 Clinton $302,404 Devens $8,946 Douglas $61,184 Dudley $54,613 East Brookfield $21,640 Fiskdale $41,611 Fitchburg $554,475 Framingham $2,062,036 Franklin $763,838 Gardner $326,241 Groton $253,390 Harvard $51,982 Holden $308,284 Holliston $282,708 Hopkinton $393,430 Hudson $539,749 Leicester $90,874 Leominster $792,321 Littleton $372,689 Lunenburg $20,292 Marlborough $860,995 Maynard $365,373 Medway $332,594 Mendon $87,653 Milford $972,224 Millbury $274,735 Millis $142,889 Natick $1,151,870 North Brookfield $92,333 North Grafton $160,909 North Oxford $18,799 Northborough $260,264 Oxford $244,638 Paxton $63,770 Pepperell $94,177 Princeton $20,862 Rutland $87,414 Shirley $65,733 Shrewsbury $676,344 South Grafton $6,977 South Lancaster $29,241 Southborough $196,613 Southbridge $272,238 Spencer $279,205 Sterling $78,206 Stow $99,108 Sturbridge $249,641 Sudbury $670,674 Sutton $96,898 Townsend $58,258 Upton $56,876 Uxbridge $229,164 Warren $29,994 Wayland $870,592 Webster $491,773 West Boylston $229,762 West Brookfield $108,855 Westborough $1,188,860 Whitinsville $1,244,781 Winchendon $73,093 Worcester $4,056,829 Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Notes: Data as of June 30, 2016. For Grafton, see North Grafton and South Grafton; for Lancaster, see South Lancaster. Worcester & Framingham have the highest bank deposits of Central Mass. communities (in thousands of dollars) F itchburg financial institution Workers Credit Union rebranded all 16 of its locations in August with a new logo, dropping the apostrophe after Workers. The new move this year came two years when the credit union surpassed the $1-billion asset mark, which is now up to $1.4 billion. Sandra Sagehorn-Elliott, chief operating officer and executive vice president at Workers Credit Union spoke about low-interest rates, the needs of homebuyers and small businesses, and how credit unions can stand out in a crowded lender industry. How does the economy look right now from the perspective of the demand for small business loans and other kinds of credit? We are seeing good demand in our area for all types of credit with strong year-over-year growth. One reason for this is that Workers serves consumers with great credit histories and those who have had challenges. Our open- door policy attracts people who feel overlooked by other financial institu- tions. Do you see homebuyers turning to local lenders more or less than they did in the past? Workers is consistently one of the top mortgage lenders in our region. That being said, the massive amount of advertising done by national lenders does attract many borrowers. We often see these same people later when the service during the loan application process doesn't live up its promise or when they realize they can often refi- nance with us at a lower rate. What are you doing, as a local institution, to appeal to customers who might be choosing between you and a large bank? Quite a lot actually. First, we are investing in technology with upgrades to our digital presence; we offer Apple, Android and Samsung Pay, allow cus- tomers to deposit checks from their phones and easily transfer money to others online, log-in to our mobile app with just a fingerprint, and a lot more. Additionally, we recently rebranded ourselves to make our outside look more consistent with the level of ser- vice we provide. That's really helped us stand out. How are continuing low-interest rates affecting your business? Low-interest rates are a challenge for every financial institution. Here, we are focusing on efficiency. We are examining all of our procedures, cut- ting out unnecessary steps, paperwork and redundancies. This not only saves time and money, it also makes inter- acting with us simpler and more con- venient for the customer. Do you think customers are more aware of credit unions as an alterna- tive to banks than they have been in the past? Absolutely! We've seen a rash of larger institutions fleeing communities in the region while credit unions remain in business to serve the com- munity. That means something to peo- ple, and we are picking up a lot of new business as a result. Also, many con- sumers are disillusioned by big banks' heavy-handed sales tactics and prefer banking with credit unions like Workers, where the best interests of our customers come before profits. How much is new technology changing the way credit unions do business? Significantly. Customers no longer compare us to other financial institu- tions, instead they want us to provide the same kind of user experience they have on their favorite website. This raises the bar. As a result, we are add- ing skilled staff to help us respond to the demands and are upgrading our technology solutions. Do you have any thoughts about what changes the next few years will bring to the banking and finan- cial industry in this area? There is an old saying, "What brought us this far is not what will take us the rest of the way." This teaches us that complacency is the greatest threat to our on-going success and should be resisted at every turn. Going forward, we are likely to see more and more competition from online-only banks and non-banks encroaching on our business by serving specific niches. It will become even more important that we respond quickly to our customers' changing needs in order to remain rel- evant to them. This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by Livia Gershon, WBJ contributor. Workers Credit Union seeks to fill void left by big banks W "We've seen a rash of larger institutions fleeing communities in the region while credit unions remain in business to serve the community." Sandra Sagehorn-Elliott, chief operating officer and executive vice president, Workers Credit Union

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