Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union is expanding its operations to Westchester County, with the construction of an office in Peekskill underway.
The new branch at 3 N. Broad St., which broke ground in April, is set to open in late October or November.
The office will be Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union”™s 14th branch. Since opening in Kingston in 1963, it has expanded from its original goal of serving the workers and families of the IBM facility in Ulster County to serving individuals and small businesses in the lower Hudson Valley through its 13 branches in Ulster, Dutchess and Orange counties.
“Broadly speaking, it”™s anyone who lives, works, worships or volunteers within that geographic footprint, and the friends and the family members of that,” said Chris Gomez, senior vice president and chief retail officer for the credit union. “And so it”™s really a broad brush throughout the Hudson Valley.”
Now, the credit union can add Westchester to the list of places in which the credit union has a physical footprint, since it received approval from the National Credit Union Administration to expand into Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Sullivan counties in September 2019.
According to Gomez, the credit union already has almost 1,000 members in the northern Westchester area and a few hundred in Peekskill.
Gomez cited Mike Mattone, vice president of community impact at the credit union, as essential to the expansion effort and to identifying Peekskill as a potential site. A Yorktown resident, Mattone saw in Peekskill a city whose needs matched what the credit union could offer to it.
“What we were looking for and where we do well is serving diverse cities where they have a general need for consumer loans and financial education training ”¦ as a credit union, that”™s kind of where we thrive, in helping communities,” Gomez said. “The examples are Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh.
“Peekskill, after all of our research, was really just exactly what we felt was a great community partner. So, partnering with the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber, Peekskill BID, the city council and the city manager”™s office, we just felt that there was a great opportunity to build something that could help continue to build that community and thrive.”
Gomez also noted that Peekskill has no credit union serving it and that many of the larger banks have shuttered in the city, relocating instead farther from the center of the city.
Several members of the branch”™s staff have already been hired and begun training.
Roger Campos, branch manager, and Leo Soriano, who handles home loans and mortgages, have been helping to lead the bank”™s integration into the community.
Although Gomez couldn”™t estimate target numbers for new membership in Peekskill, he detailed several initiatives that the credit union has prioritized for the branch, which were developed around the needs that the credit union identified in the city.
The branch will have and be led by bilingual staff to better serve the needs of Peekskill”™s Hispanic and Latino community members. It will offer teller services (both in person and a remote, virtual teller service), lending services, investment and retirement services and business banking.
Gomez noted that Peekskill has been missing the philosophy of a credit union, wherein the goal is to help local residents with their financial decisions and goals, rather than utilize their membership to sell products and make a greater profit through higher loan rates, as a larger bank might.
“We have the advantage of being small enough that we can have the same technology (as a large bank), but we”™ll also have the staff that”™s going to have a real focus on helping them,” he said. “And so when you walk in it isn”™t about (cross selling). We don”™t use that word. It”™s about, well, let”™s ask some questions to see if there are ways we can help them forge. And so really that kind of a reverse approach and not selling, but really having staff that looks like them, that”™s from the same area, that speaks their native language, but more importantly has the opportunity to help them.”
Financial education and community outreach will be a big priority for the Peekskill staff, including a financial education specialist whose sole job is to meet with the community and offer tools and knowledge for personal financial success, and counseling for small businesses.
Gomez noted that this is especially important now as many individuals are struggling to keep afloat amid Covid-related economic downturns and small businesses that normally operate without a dedicated accountant could be missing out on government funding such as PPP loans if they lack the know-how to submit all paperwork correctly.
Although the credit union plans to expand even more into Westchester, Gomez said that it is also considering how physical branches can add value for members who increasingly conduct their banking online, but its staff is still searching for communities that they feel match the credit union”™s mission.
“We have very aggressive plans to continue to support the Westchester community and Rockland community, specifically over the next three to five years,” Gomez said.
