Pandemic response: How 4 credit unions cope with coronavirus
BECU, Logix, CommunityAmerica, and MSUFCU share insight on their response and how they’re planning for the unknown.
The coronavirus wake-up call came early for BECU($22.2B, Tukwila, WA). After all, approximately half of the known U.S. deaths from the illness it causes — COVID-19 — have occurred in a single nursing homein suburban Seattle.
The nation’s fourth-largest credit union responded quickly.
“We’ve had a pandemic plan in place for several years, but we began focusing on the coronavirus in mid-January and issuing communications to our employees beginning on Jan. 24,” says Al Wilson, BECU’s director of cybersecurity business resilience.
West Coast credit unions are currently at the epicenter of the outbreak, but that could change. The leadership of at least one big heartland credit union knows this well.
“The number of cases in Missouri and Kansas is low so far,” says Joan Cohen, chief administrative officer at CommunityAmerica Credit Union($3.0B, Lenexa, KS). “We expect the situation to change and are prepared to act accordingly.
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