A force for good in banking
Clearwater FCU adopted a values-based banking approach in 2017 and has made significant strides in building a resilient, transparent, and socially and environmentally aware cooperative.
Five years ago, Clearwater Federal Credit Union ($752.8M, Missoula, MT) was feeling the pressures of a mid-size shop. It wasn’t quite large enough to operate at scale, and its growth was limited by the size of its three-county field of membership.
In 2015, the then-named Missoula Federal reported negative member growth and a loan-to-asset ratio of 36.8%, nearly 30 percentage points lower than the national average.
“At that point, we wanted to realign and find some stability,” says Clint Summers, the credit union’s COO.
In doing so, the credit union asked itself an introspective question: What kind of organization did it want to be?
continue reading »