With a membership heavy in healthcare and hospital work, MedicalArea Federal Credit Union decided to take its services to theworkplace.

The $71 million Brookline, Mass., credit union has launched amobile branch service, allowing a staffer with a laptop to openaccounts, handle credit card and loan applications and sell moneyorders and gift cards. It's called MAFCU to Go.

“MAFCU to Go means members get access to the credit uniondirectly in the workplace and gives us an opportunity to provideone-on-one consultative service to members,” said Nicole James, the 11,000-member credit union'spresident/CEO.

Sarita Ledani, MAFCU vice president of business development and marketing,said the response has been good in the first couple stops.

“We know our members are working harder and longer hours anddon't have a lot of flexibility, so this was a good way to makethings easier for them, going out into their workplace,” Ledanisaid. “We're signing up new members, too, and meeting their needsas well.”

While using high-tech tools – secured online connections tointegrate laptop and core processing , in this case Fiserv's XPplatform – “it's kind of an old-school way of going mobile, realpeople meeting real people,” Ledani said.