Business View Magazine Feb 2023

115 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 K INDRED CREDI T UNION Ian Thomas Frank Chisholm As a credit union, Kindred is member-owned, which means every member has an ownership stake and an opportunity to vote on its practices and policies, and they are also the benefactors of its profits. “The more business members do with Kindred, the larger that amount would be to the individuals,” Thomas explains. “In the past year, we returned over $1.4 million to our members in terms of profits.” While they don’t have plans to open any new branches anytime soon, Thomas says moving into the world of online banking has made it so that members can access the credit union from anywhere in Ontario. “I would say our newest community would be our digital community,” he says. “Over the last number of years, as we have refreshed our mobile apps and online banking, people can now join Kindred through digital channels and actually open an account online, can get a loan online. There are a number of channels and access points where members can actually interact with Kindred without ever having to set foot in a branch, even from the moment of outset.” “We’ve seen a lot of our members, as life has taken them outside of our traditional markets, continue to be able to do business with Kindred. We have members literally throughout Ontario, even where we don’t have a branch, but because of the technologies and the investments that we’ve made in digital platforms, they’ve been able to maintain a banking relationship with us.” The move to more online banking has allowed Kindred to continue to grow, not only adding more employees to the organization but also creating new roles, including the newly established digital channels director. “The whole point of the digital channels work that we’re doing all comes together for the purpose of better supporting our members,” Smith explains. “If we can pinpoint and make sure that the messages that our members are getting from us are really meaningful and it’s giving them meaningful advice and meaningful communication, then that’s going to support them financially better and