When Thomas White moved into the CEO's office at RocklandFederal Credit Union in 1994, some people might have questioned hisdecision to take on the job.

The credit union was in conservatorship, battered bydelinquencies, sagging capital and what NCUA evidently saw as weakleadership. White had developed a reputation for saving troubledcredit unions, so he was brought in to take charge and restore thecredit union to health.

At the low point, RFCU's assets had shrunk to $189 million. Byearly 2004 the count was up to $610 million. Today, the creditunion is a member of the billionaire's club, with $1.45billion.

What's more, the credit union has been dealing quite well withthe recession-or at least better than financial institutions inmany other areas.

“Generally, what I'm seeing here is better than in some states,”White indicated. “We've been more typical of the mid-Easternregion. New York, Boston, Connecticut have held up pretty wellcompared to states like Florida and Arizona. We are seeing job lossand salary cuts. Two areas where we have been impacted have beendelinquency on real estate loans and members struggling with theircredit cards.”

“Valuations had held up okay. We do have some valuation issueswith real estate but not nearly the issues experienced in otherregions. We haven't had a surge of foreclosures so far. In thisenvironment, we've had a lot more modifications-reducing rates,changing terms, trying to work with the members to keep them intheir homes-rather than trying to liquidate the asset, which is theworst way to recover your loan balance.”

As far as White is concerned, the member is always right. Themembership includes many self-employed blue-collar workers, oftencarpenters or other construction workers.

“They're probably having a more difficult time than most people.There's just no work out there for them. A lot of them live day today. It's a challenge to recognize that and work with them throughthese current times,” White said.

“We try to build our products around it. We recognize we havemany self-employed and create, for example, checking accounts thattake that into consideration. Many of them may not have ACH, forinstance.”

So with member service in mind, RFCU recently redesigned itswebsite.

“We had the same one for a while and it seemed to be getting alittle bit stale, and it wasn't as member-friendly as we wanted itto be,” White explained. “We hired a third party to redesign it,refresh it and make it easier for members to move around on.Members do find it simple to navigate, and they like thecolors.”

The commitment to service also means being there when memberswant you, including three branches that are open Sunday. Two ofthose branches are in supermarkets, and the third is in aWalmart.

The first of the supermarket branches opened in 1997. It is inWeymouth, next to a hospital that was a RFCU SEG. White called theresponse “tremendous,” noting the branch handles 25,000 to 27,000transactions a month.

“In fact, all three of them generate deposits that make themself-supporting,” White said. The branches not only attractexisting members, but also people from the immediate neighborhoodwho frequently shop the store, spot the branch and realize howconvenient it would be to have an account there.

RFCU offers indirect lending, booking some $220 million in autoloans in 2010. The credit union saw problems back in 2006 and 2007in auto delinquencies and tightened underwriting standards.Delinquencies are now lower than they have been in two or threeyears.

The business loan portfolio totals about $50 million. Mostbusiness loans are secured by real estate, and only one or two haveposed problems. The credit union is conservative and only issuesabout $4 million to $5 million a year in business loans.

Actually, White said, the credit union has been through economiccycles before. The big challenge today is steering throughregulatory and legislative issues such as interchange income,corporate assessments and cautious examiners.

Also on the list of challenges is the fact that RFCU is goingthrough a core conversion after being on the same system since1987. On the positive side, the change is expected to bring someadditional efficiencies and new opportunities to serve membersbetter. The loan origination system, which drives the all-importantauto lending business, is being upgraded at the same time.

“We see some improvement in credit, and I see that asstabilizing,” White said. “Our earnings projections for 2011continue to be similar to 2010.”

After graduating from Boston College with a major in accounting,White worked for KPMG for more than seven years, then for a bankbefore being recruited by Progressive Consumers Federal CreditUnion in Malden, Mass.

Six months later they were in conservatorship. White worked withregulators to help merge the credit union. After the merger, theopportunity to join RFCU came along. Some members of his team fromProgressive came to RFCU with him.

White believes his management style has changed.

“When I first came here, I was a lot more focused on controllingand managing the process myself,” he said. “Over time, I've found Itry to delegate as much as possible and empower people to makedecisions on the spot. I'd rather have them make the decision, evenif it's the wrong one. The sooner we make the decision the betteroff we are.”

“I have a very good team. They've been with me a long time, so Ihave a lot of confidence in their good judgment. The same with theboard. We've had the same board since we came out ofconservatorship.”

Married with two children-one out of college and another stillin college-White likes to play golf in the summer. He also goes tothe gym to work out and does a lot of reading.

“I tend to be out in the community. The members sometimes callme directly. It upsets me when they have to call me a second timebecause our people have fallen down. It's not often, but it gets mewhen service to a member has been less than I would like it to be.I feel as though I've failed,” he said.