Kingston Community Credit Union

V BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4 That extra look is what truly personifies KCCU’s operating ethos. Because its members have a say in how the credit union functions, they are always creating new programs and products to suit their needs. “For example, five years ago, we rolled out a wealth office to try and help older members who need to do succession and inheritance planning,” Dessau relates. “We try to have a conversation with each member to make sure that we are finding the truly appropriate product for them. And around Christmas, when people spend a lot, we also have a product where we help them with very short-term credit to make sure they don’t carry a large credit card balance because the last thing we want to do is get people tied into carrying debt beyond what they should be.” Nowhere is that extra look more important than when KCCU arranges a mortgage loan. Dessau explains: “While it’s not mandated on credit unions to stress-test people when they take out mortgages, we’ve always been doing that because, as a rule, we don’t give a mortgage unless our account managers have that conversation with a borrower and say, ‘Okay. This looks like a great home. This is what the mortgage is going to cost you. But let’s look at where you would be if interest rates went up two-and-a-half percent. We ask whether you are sure you could still carry that mortgage.” “So, we do a stress test. It’s not mandatory in our industry; it’s a requirement in terms of our lending practices that the members understand and go through that exercise so that they could see where they would be. We’re not helping anybody if we put them in a home they can’t afford,” he elaborates. When COVID came to Kingston in early 2020, KCCU further aided its mortgage holders, as Dessau recounts: “The immediate impact of COVID was that being a town that relies on students, and tourism in the summer, a lot of people were going to be without jobs in the service industries because the students were sent home and the tourists never came. Immediately in March, within a week, we rolled out a member assistance program and were ready to offer deferrals for