Business View Magazine | December 2020

207 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 Dramastically Better Digital Banking.™ IT’S HERE! Customer collaboration fed into our ultra-modern UX makes our Digital Banking Suite dramastically better. tyfone.com SELFREL I ANCE FEDERAL CREDI T UNION innovators. But we’re always committed to keeping pace with market standards. For many years, we’ve offered online and mobile services but suddenly, because of the pandemic, people realized that it’s actually easier to do an e-signature, for example, instead of coming into the credit union. We accelerated all these services and the adoption rate was much higher than what we expected from our membership.” Plans are also underway to develop and implement a new digital banking system which integrates various smart devices, including Amazon Alexa. Kutnyy notes, “That will take our online services to the next level and will allow our members to perform many self-service actions online. We’re excited to offer this state- of-the-art platform to our members.” Growth remains a priority for Selfreliance, even during the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic. It is currently finalizing and remodeling a newly acquired location in Hamtramck, Michigan and also looking for a new location in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. Despite the industry’s focus on technology, Kutnyy feels that in- person customer service is an important factor to members. He states, “We still believe it’s important for us to have branches and a local presence. It’s the combination of digital banking and in-person banking that will allow us to continue to grow the credit union and provide valuable financial services to our members.” Selfreliance was founded with the promise of providing stability and prosperity for its members who arrived in the United States, having escaped a regime that historically denied those opportunities. The credit union’s founders perceptively organized themselves around their common understanding of co- operative finance. Their close ties to the growing Ukrainian-American community established Selfreliance as a unique cultural and financial institution. Kutnyy reflects on the credit union’s growth since those early years, “I would say our connection with the Ukrainian-American immigrant population and with our community