Hurricane Sandy: Shared Branching Working for Storm-Struck Members

So far, members of shared branching credit unions that have been impacted by Sandy have been able to use the facilities of other credit unions to access their accounts and obtain cash, CO-OP Financial Services said Tuesday.

Craig Beach, chief operating officer with CO-OP Shared Branching, said credit union members seeking access because their credit unions have been closed by the storm have been able to find it, though he said the CUSO was not yet certain how many credit unions had been impacted.

“So far we have received calls from members wanting to know if locations are open and they have been mostly,” Beach said. He said that of 10 calls the CUSO had received, eight of those callers found out their locations were open, while two were not. Four of those open lacked phone service, Beach said.

Mark Chatfield, chief operating officer for the CO-OP call center in Dallas, said the CUSO had been taking calls for dozens of impacted East Coast credit unions to provide front line services to their members.

The services include anything from providing notices of closures to emergency underwriting for loans to help address needs from the storm.

Meanwhile, the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions offices on lower Broadway in New York remained closed for a second day, but CEO Cathie Mahon said the 21^st floor offices were undamaged but without power, computer systems or phones.

Staff were able to access email from remote locations, she added. The federation said damage reports were scarce Tuesday because credit union employees had been unable to reach many of their New York and New Jersey offices on Tuesday.

Also, all branches of the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union remained closed Tuesday according to its website. Mahon said the credit union has seen flooding and lost power, but she had no other details.