Alabama credit unions Tuesday were already seeing a flow of new deposit and loan business as they capitalize on last Friday's collapse of the $25 billion Colonial Bank of Montgomery, the biggest failure in a year.
While major CUs in the state were being careful about conducting outright promotions undermining or demeaning a financial competitor, managers were relishing banking's in-state troubles, also highlighted by a series of large Wachovia Bank-type mergers, which CU officials claim are driving business to CUs.
"Look, people want stability, safety and soundness in handling their finances and if we can't demonstrate that now, we'll never do it," said Joseph Newberry, president/CEO of the $2.5 billion Redstone FCU of Huntsville.
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Steve Swofford, president/CEO of the $335 million Alabama CU of Tuscaloosa echoed Newberry and said consumers may be eager to switch accounts from banks to CUs "so they can get more personal service and not worry about the unknown, when exactly their bank is going to get merged and then dealing with somebody they don't know."
Swofford said his CU with 17 branches across the state is competing with Colonial and has already seen "a groundswell" of deposit business.
Greg McClellan, president/CEO of the $771 million Max CU of Montgomery, said his CU has done well all year "by keeping our name out there with service and civic clubs" as a means of showing stability. "But we're not about to play the marketing game of 'we're financially stronger than the next guy' because if everyone is doing that in the market it becomes overkill," he said.
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