LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Cottonwood Community FCU in Cottonwood, Idaho has joined CO-OP shared branching through CU Service Network. The move will provide access to more than 5,300 branches to their members and will also open their doors to members of other shared branching credit unions.
“Shared branching is one way we can return a significant value to our members, which is a primary goal the board of directors has established,” said Greg Sonnen, CCFCU’s CEO. “We hope this provides additional convenience to our members and essentially adds thousands of branches where members can conduct routine business.”
Sonnen also brings up two strong points in the case for shared branching, one being the often-overlooked disaster recovery: “[Shared branching] also bolsters our ability to maintain member service in the event of potential disasters or even just some inconvenient power outages.”
Secondly, for credit unions in small towns in particular, the threat of losing college-age accounts is present. “We also hope to retain all or most of our members, especially the younger members, who may move out of the area. Shared branching keeps their accounts accessible through the network,” adds Sonnen.