Behind the Vault

In this episode, we talk with Elizabeth Magennis, President of ConnectOne Bank, about the resilience and adaptability of retail banking in today's market, particularly in the face of economic downturns and the rise of fintech. Elizabeth offers insights into ConnectOne's growth and acceleration during the 2008 financial crisis and its continued evolution, even living in the direct shadow of the largest Wall Street banks.

Highlights from our discussion:

* Starting out in 2005 and running into 2008

* The underserved small business customer

* The opportunity for banks as advisory roles to their clients

* Positioning against fintech and larger mega-banks

* The CRE market and whether it represents a systemic risk

* Using clients' needs and interests to drive product and geographic expansion

For more on ConnectOne, visit https://www.connectonebank.com/

Tackling systemic problems like access to housing requires aligning all the way from partnership to the very core of an institution's charter. Washington State's Verity Credit Union is in the process of reinventing itself and its ecosystem of partners to do just that. Ziquora Banks, Chief Impact Strategy Officer, joins us to share

Highlights from this episode:

- Verity's almost 100-year history and reorienting its mission on the changing needs of its members

- Pursuing a Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) certification

- Recruiting leadership as part of a mission realignment

- Access to housing as the tip of the spear

- Innovating in finance and picking the right partners in the community

For more of Verity's approach, visit VerityCU.com.

See their 2023 impact report, which explains how innovating on credit scoring helps them meet their impact goals and risk targets.

See this link to the Bookings Institution analysis of the role home equity played in the recent growth of Black household wealth.

In this episode, we follow up on our discussion of the pressure facing community FI leaders and look at only a few of the many ways they are taking bold and differentiated positions in the market. These few examples demonstrate the seemingly endless ways in which community banks and credit unions are earning the loyalty and continued growth of their customers and members. By picking unique offerings and approaches, these organizations are exploiting a nimbleness and sometimes narrowly focused approach to service that is proving difficult to compete with.

In this episode, we hear from past guests, including:

• Teri Williams of OneUnited Bank
• Lex Ford of Climate First Bank
• Jonathan Encarnación of Community First Fund
• Ryan Harvey of Family Trust FCU
• Carma Peters of Michigan Legacy Credit Union

To listen to their full stories, visit BehindTheVaultPod.com

In this episode, we review our more recent discussions with community FI leaders and identify the pressing themes they are facing in today's market. We look at the common demands and priorities that are driving the agenda of community banks and credit unions. We hear from a broad set of leaders and their approach to increasing regulatory demands, growth, changing customer demographics, and keeping relevant with new and innovative customer experience and offerings.

In this episode, we hear from past guests, including:

* Gary Golden of BHCU

* RJ Grimshaw of UniFi/Bank of Ann Arbor

* Brett Fisher of Skyla Credit Union

* Economist Gazi Kabas

* Cathy Landtroop and Lubbock Smith of Vista Bank

* Bree Shellito of Ent Credit Union

* Amy McGraw of Tropical FCU

* Lex Ford of Climate First Bank

* Jonathan Encarnación of Community First Fund

To listen to their full stories, visit BehindTheVaultPod.com

New or de novo banks and credit unions are rare, even more so when born from existing community institutions. Pennsylvania's Community First Fund did just that in 2022. Jonathan Encarnación, Senior Vice President and Chief Retail Officer, shares the story of Community First Fund, the underserved market it serves, its growth through mergers, and its launch of a consumer deposit institution after 30 years of commercially focused lending.

Some highlights from the episode:

-Their legacy in micro-lending, affordable housing development, and grocery/food distribution

-The role non-financial outcomes play in measuring the success of initiatives

-Their strategy of addressing community gaps in access to housing and fresh food in addition to financial services

-The unlikely partnerships that have accelerated Community First Fund and what helped launch the credit union

Click here for Community First Fund's impact report

While every financial institution has education in its service model, differentiating on financial wellness requires a deliberate and sustained effort. In this episode, we hear from Bree Shellito of Colorado's Ent Credit Union. Bree shares Ent's history and playbook for scaling financial coaching from a small core team to all of their 500,000 members and community touchpoints.

- Ent's model for coaching as both a member service and community support

- Which 3rd party certifications were most useful to Ent, and how they create their training material

- The difference in coaching Ent's own employees vs. their members

- How Ent's team is organized, ensuring alignment of incentives and managing the currency or skills across 50 branches and community outreach teams

- How Ent customizes their coaching experience and material and then measures success

For more on Ent's programs, visit: https://www.ent.com/education-center/

To join Bree's monthly financial wellness practitioner roundtable, visit here.

Retooling how your key stakeholders interact with your brand is a high-stakes exercise. Addressing the need to stay relevant, the divergent generational needs of your members and customers, and aligning your critical front-line employees can be a juggling act. Michigan Legacy Credit Union is in the process of reinventing not only the look and feel of its branches but also how it directly interacts with its members. In this episode, President and CEO Carma Peters shares the plans and lessons learned so far in redesigning the 78-year-old credit union.

Highlights from our conversation:

- Benchmarking member vs. transactional usage by channel

- The decision between video teller and interactive teller machines (ITM)

- Executing digital transformation and brand reinvention simultaneously

- Addressing generational issues without alienating anyone, including the CU's front-line employees

- Rationalizing what services and experience to deliver across channels and being out-front as a leader as part of change.

For more about Michigan Legacy Credit Union and to see their virtual branch tour, visit: https://michiganlegacycu.org/locations/

Community involvement that works requires both authenticity and creativity to meet changing and generational needs. In this episode of Behind the Vault, we look at Vista Bank's approach to community outreach, which uses a blend of financial education and sports. Joining us are Cathy Landtroop, Chief Marketing, and Communications Officer, and Lubbock Smith, VP and Director of Community Development and Outreach of the 112 year old institution.

Highlights from our discussion:

- Meeting the broad and diverse needs of a community that spans from urban to rural communities

- Using financial literacy as a doorway into promoting entrepreneurship and careers in financial services

- The special role sports play across Texas, the unique needs of high school athletes, and helping with the "sudden wealth" problem NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals present for college athletes

- Vista Bank's investments in community organizations and the opening of a new branch in South Dallas, the first in over 30 years

More on Vista Bank's South Dallas branch opening: https://www.vistabank.com/vista-bank-ceo-aims-to-level-the-playing-field-with-new-branch-near-fair-park/

The bank's financial literacy programs: https://www.vistabank.com/resources/financial-literacy-resource-center/

The merger of non-profit financial institutions like credit unions brings unique challenges and measures of success. With the recent mergers of Charlotte Metro Credit Union, Premiere FCU, and Parsons FCU into the $1.5B Skyla Credit Union, COO Geri Hopkins and CFO Brett Fisher share their first-hand experience managing transactions like this. In this episode, we discuss the importance of market analysis, satisfying different boards and memberships, and addressing the overall change management and technology hurdles.

Episode Highlights:

- The critical role boards play in mergers on both sides of the deal

- Why relationships and cultural fit are more significant factors of success than financial consideration

- The 1+1=3 aspect of technology in a merger and creating a financial services CUSO in the process

- Managing change, minimizing distractions, and leveraging the experience and skills of mergers when the integration is done

- What "done" looks like in mergers of this size

For more about Skyla CU or to contact the team about their merger experience, visit https://www.skylacu.com/

The operative word in community banking is community. Sometimes, a community extends beyond a local geography. OneUnited is an example of a community financial institution that has evolved to meet this definition of community. With over $600M in assets, OneUnited is the largest black-owned bank in the US. It leverages technology and its unique approach to banking to serve a distinct community of customers across the country.

Highlights from this episode:

- The strategy that drove a string of acquisitions to the bank's footprint today

- Overcoming distrust in banking and getting past perceptions of the 2008 financial crisis

- Their use of technology to unify operations across the bank and deliver a modern digital experience for customers

- OneUnited's structure as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and how that aligns with and enables their mission

- The critical role education plays in the bank's approach to service

- OneUnited's approach to sustainable CRA activities

For more info on OneUnited and Teri's story, visit OneUnited.com.