Business View Magazine | November 2020

105 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 MERCK SHARP & DOHME FEDERAL CREDI T UNION manufacturing facility in West Point, with about 12,000 employees. Those who were unable to get loans elsewhere, we were more than happy to provide them with the financing needs they were looking for. As Merck grew here in Pennsylvania, so did we; we’ve come all the way to the full-service credit union that we are today.” Today, Merck Sharp & Dohme FCU has two onsite branches at Merck - one in their main West Point office, and one in a subsidiary office in Upper Gwynedd. “We have five other branches supporting our operations, and 85 employees,” Whitehead adds. “We want to serve our members where they work and where they live, so we’ve been putting branches out in the community where the Merck employees reside. We’re still a Merck-based credit union; Merck makes up 90 percent of our membership. The other ten percent are small companies that encompass our branch network.” MSDFCU also has two wholly-owned subsidiaries to better service its members’ needs – a mortgage company, New Britain Mortgage, and an abstract company, CU Abstract, which offers title insurance. “Our mortgage company is doing phenomenally,” Whitehead notes. “With the rates down as low as they are, the housing market is doing well. We’re getting a lot of re- finances and lot of purchases. So, between the mortgage company and the abstract company, they’re providing a lot of income, currently.” In the competitive banking and credit union marketplace, Senior Vice President, Dana DeFilippis, believes that MSDFCU stands out because of its superior customer service. “I know everybody says service, but I think we really do walk the talk,” she maintains. “About two years ago, we instituted a real-time survey system that allows us to survey our members right after they do a transaction or have some sort of service with us. And our net promoter score, and