Business View Magazine | December 2020

173 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 out of it. But we’re still trying to manage a teller line channel, we’re managing home banking and mobile technology, and now we’re implementing ITMs throughout our branches. All of these channels increase expenses and member convenience without generating any additional income.” The combination of rate compression, regulation, and new technology and services has led to consolidation within the industry. But Superior Credit Union takes the stance that consolidation can be avoided if income generation outruns expenses. And home mortgages have helped greatly in that equation. Recent expansion into some of Ohio’s larger metropolitan markets through mergers has allowed Superior Credit Union to increase its mortgage lending. “A lot of the credit unions we merged in, weren’t really doing mortgage lending, but they had members,” says Neeper. “And now that they are with a credit union that has a good, strong mortgage program, we’re rewriting a lot of those loans for them and Preferred vendor of SUPER IOR CREDI T UNION bringing them into the credit union’s portfolio, so that’s also been a real nice driver for us this year. We’re not only just churning the paper that we already had, but we’re also actually gaining a lot of new business, new market share in areas that we’re relatively new to.” Superior Credit Union has also been aggressive when it comes to refinancing. Whether a loan is on their books or someone else’s, if refinancing will significantly reduce the interest rate, credit union employees will call and tell members they can save money. To some, reducing the rates on loans that are already on Superior Credit Union’s books may not make sense from a numbers standpoint. But Buell doesn’t see it that way. “For us, we think it does,” he contends. “One, because we’re taking care of that member relationship and keeping it sticky. The other piece is, if we don’t do it, someone else is going to take it from us. I think that’s been maybe one of the secret ingredients to our success.”