FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.– Bragg Mutual FCU has been approved by NCUA to add two underserved areas, comprising a total of 301 census tracts, to its field of membership.
The credit union worked with CUCollaborate on the expansion.
The $95-million Bragg Mutual FCU is a multiple common bond CU had been looking to expand its service beyond the traditional geographic footprint it has served for the last 70 years.
The credit union’s membership stands at just under 10,000 members, which was spread across select employee groups in various North Carolina counties and a single underserved area covering 14 census tracts.
“Expanding will allow us to grow, but also fill the need to provide local financial services into many rural communities in various census tracts in North and South Carolina,” said President and CEO Steve Foley. “The financial needs of families and community groups everywhere are constantly evolving and our mission has always been to support our members as they walk through their financial lives.”
‘Best Path Towards Growth’
BMFCU said it would not have been able to grow without expanding its FOM.
CUCollaborate, which specializes in field of membership consulting services specifically for the purpose of helping institutions expand their FOM with their regulator, said it worked together with Bragg Mutual to identify the best path towards growth, a strategy that culminated in submitting an ultimately successful application for expansion to the NCUA.
CU Collaborate noted that under a multiple common bond charter, an institution has the option of adding well-defined local communities and/or rural districts to an FOM, provided they qualify as “underserved.” To do so, an area must meet certain standards of economic distress, have proven unmet financial needs and be underserved by other depository institutions, the company added.
In this case, CUCollaborate said it helped Bragg Mutual to prove the areas to be added indeed met all these standards, as well as the institution’s ability and commitment to serving potential new members immediately.
“Over the past three years Bragg Mutual has already proven the success of our business model by almost doubling the assets of the credit union,” said Foley. “We believe our credit union fills a gap of financial providers in these rural parts of North and South Carolina, and bringing our services to reach more of these communities will only help us improve the financial relationship options for those who will truly benefit from them.”
About the New FOM
The expanded FOM involves two underserved rural districts, each made up of contiguous census tracts spread across both North and South Carolina. The combined areas, with an estimated population of over 1.39 million, have the potential to increase Bragg Mutual’s field of membership substantially, the company stated.
“We are of course thrilled for Bragg Mutual and thankful to have played a role in their success,” said CUCollaborate Founder and CEO Sam Brownell. “Above all, the credit union has now greatly increased its potential field of membership, which will allow it to offer its services on an entirely new scale. This progress and expansion are key for any institution looking to grow and again we are grateful they trusted us to be a part of the process.”
You May Be (Actually Are) Missing Out!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.