Business View Magazine | October 2020

78 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 Tioga County, PA; three in Chemung County, NY; and five in Steuben County, NY. “We are a full-service credit union,” says President & CEO, Thomas Pisano. “We offer most loan products that you would see in a larger financial institution – first mortgage loans, home equity loans, business or commercial loans, and auto loans. “An area that we really excel at in our market is indirect auto lending. We have relationships with local auto dealerships that provide the dealer the ability to offer our auto loans directly to their clients. In this case, the member can receive an auto loan from us without having to come through our doors or online portal. They are able to complete the entire process at the dealership and the dealership will work with us to get them the financing they need.” Within First Heritage’s market there are many credit unions, community banks, and large commercial banks, but Pisano believes that First Heritage’s reputation as a true advocate for its members gives it an advantage over the competition. “We really aim not to just put services or products in our members’ hands,” he maintains. “We want to improve their financial lives by offering products and services that make sense to them, not to us. We work hard to consult and collaborate with our membership to help them understand the products and services that they might need - whether it’s a loan or deposit product. So, we try to understand our members’ situations. And then, we let them know what we think will work best for their financial wellbeing.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, First Heritage has displayed the same care for its employees as it continually does for its members. “We sent a large percentage of our staff who don’t interact with our membership home, very early on,” Pisano relates. “We’re an essential business, so we did keep our doors open to our members, initially, but we quickly realized that we had to make a change, so we went to drive-thru only, fairly early on. We did a lot of things to