RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—Todd Clark said that his mother, at the age of 75, now has her first digital banking app on her phone and is using it.
The president and CEO of CO-OP Financial Services, made that point during the CUSO’s virtual THINK20 Virtual Conference Wednesday to illustrate the dramatic shift to digital services by consumers being driven by the pandemic.
In the opening session of the Forum, Clark addressed the immediate, mid-term, and longer-term impacts of the health crisis.
“I am proud of our team,” said Clark. “When the health crisis hit around March 12, we were able to quickly move 80% of or staff to remote work.”
Clark said that not only kept those employees safe, but also staff who remained in the office.
“It gave us a lot more space to spread people out so they could work safely,” he said. “The safety of our employees has always been one of our top concerns during the pandemic.”
Service Remains High
Clark said CO-OP’s service delivery has remained at its normal high levels, and that the CUSO has seen a 100% increase in call center activity as the pandemic has persisted. As CUToday.info reported, CO-OP rapidly expanded its call center as the health crisis hit and plans to continue that expansion.
The programs that CO-OP is putting in place to protect employees—sanitizing programs, social distancing in the workplace, and new approaches to serving its CU clients during the health crisis won’t but tossed away after the pandemic is over, noted Clark.
“These programs will be placed on a shelf to be ready to be used if another crisis occurs,” he said.
Turning to what credit unions have been doing to support members, Clark said he is proud of the efforts CUs are making to offer loan forbearance, waive fees, and other special assistance.
“And in these kinds of times you typically see the banks pull back, lowering loan amounts, tightening collections…But credit unions are leaning is, as they always do,” he said.
In the middle of the pandemic, credit unions are now turning to setting aside money in reserves for potential loan losses, noted Clark.
“I think next year we will see the defaults,” said Clark. “But credit unions are well capitalized, as is CO-OP. I told all of our staff there would be no layoffs, and we actually have been hiring.”
During Clark’s session, CO-OP polled attendees on the primary areas they are focused on during the pandemic. The top two: the future of lending (38.5%) and payments processing ecosystem (37.3%).