EL MONTE, Calif.–The $25-million Printing Industries Credit Union has moved in to the offices of the Certified FCU, which is a division of the $500-million Vons CU. The CUs serve different field of memberships and the move is being made to cut costs for PICU.
The move into the Certified FCU offices comes after six years of discussion, and is estimated it will save Printing Industries approximately $80,000 annually. According to the California and Nevada CU leagues, Vons had already planned to downsize Certified’s large unneeded branch space after that credit union merged into Vons in 2010. It was an office Printing Industries was used to borrowing from time to time, which started a conversation.
“Many in our industry often assume talks between a small and larger credit union are merger-related, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” said Susan Conjurski, CEO of Printing Industries. “Both credit unions’ signage is on the windows, doors and ATMs, and both will be represented on the building’s exterior. You’re probably going to see more of these types of partnerships as smaller credit unions look for ways to increase scale, savings, and product offerings through bringing together back-office resources.”
Vons is headquartered in El Monte and serves grocery-chain employees, having six branches throughout Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. Printing Industries serves printing workers and has a branch inside its Riverside headquarters in addition to the Commerce location.
According to the league, the advantages are reciprocal. Certified FCU will gain a new branch presence next year at Printing Industries’ site in Riverside. It will be Vons’ first physical location in the “Inland Empire” region of California. The Certified division of Vons serves employees of Hispanic supermarket chain Cardenas, which has more than two dozen stores across San Bernardino and Riverside counties the league said.
'What We're Here For'
“We wanted to help Susan’s small credit union,” said Steve Weakley, CEO of Vons CU. “They were just trying to survive when she was hired as CEO. Cooperating with each other when we can is our purpose and what we’re here for. There are so many small credit unions being merged right now, so we wanted to help at least one as long as it was financially viable.”
Another plus: Both credit unions are on the CO-OP Shared Branch network. “The thing about the City of Commerce is, the population more than doubles in the daytime because it’s a business community,” Weakley said. “That’s what makes shared-branching work for them and us at this location.”
The league reported that besides significant savings on retail space, tellers and member service representatives from either credit union at both branches will help offload traffic at peak times, pushing down members’ wait times. If successful, Conjurski might consider using this shared-space model at Union Pacific California Employees FCU in Los Alamitos where she also serves as interim CEO, the league said.
The credit unions said the model is similar to that which has been advocated by both NCUA and Filene, the so-called “network credit union model.” More information on a Filene report on that model can be found here (click here for synopsis and full report).