In the wake of the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and other banks, Eltropy hosted a “Digital Conversations For CFIs” event along with the California and Nevada Credit Union League on March 16. At the event, senior leaders from Patelco Credit Union, Redwood Credit Union, and Stanford Federal Credit Union spoke confidently about the state of the industry. They expressed the need to remind and re-educate Americans about the advantages of banking with credit unions at times like these.
Eltropy Co-founder and CEO Ashish Garg, who also spoke at the event, said, “Credit unions have a lot in common with Wall Street banks when it comes to the services that they offer to consumers, but they’re distinct in many ways. For one, credit unions operate under a strict set of regulations and are not driven by profit and shareholder interests. In addition, they have more protections in place to safeguard members’ funds, so historically they’ve been protected at times when institutions such as SVB and Washington Mutual have faltered.”
“In today’s world, the expectation from our members is to have 24/7/365 access to their banking, just as they’ve become accustomed to that experience in other aspects of their lives,” said Paul Jockisch, CFO of Stanford Federal Credit Union in Palo Alto, Calif. “As the news about SVB spread over the weekend we literally had some of our top executives on the phone with concerned members. That may seem unusual for a Sunday night, and it is, but crisis aside, the baseline is changing. The point being – we need to have the resources and technology ready to communicate anytime, anywhere with our members.”
