CU QUICK FACTS
California Credit Union
Data as of 03.31.17
HQ: Glendale, CA
ASSETS: $3.0B
MEMBERS: 163,010
BRANCHES: 25
12-MO SHARE GROWTH: 105.7%
12-MO LOAN GROWTH: 95.2%
ROA: 0.16%
Business banker Johnny Galvan didn’t lose any ground in his cash management initiatives when his employer merged with a bigger credit union. He gained a new market.
Galvan is vice president of business banking at California Credit Union ($3.0B, Glendale, CA), the same position he had when North Island Credit Union and California Credit Union joined earlier this year in a rare merger of billion-dollar credit unions. The vice president now has statewide reach for projects like rolling out mobile remote deposit capture technology to business members.
As part of a broader rollout of new consumer digital products, North Island had adopted Ensenta’s business RDC platform in September 2015. A month later it added mobile deposits to the desktop scanner option.
Johnny Galvan, VP of Business Banking, California Credit Union
Galvan says approximately 60 North Island business members were using the scan option, and the merger with California Credit Union brought in another 40. And another 25 businesses are now using the mobile deposit service.
The operation sees approximately 1,100 deposits a month from merchant capture, not yet including mobile, averaging $9,000 each. Users include property managers and homeowner associations, medical and dental offices, construction companies, and even some smaller credit unions that do their own banking with California Credit Union.
California Credit Union uses its vendor partner’s benchmarking and risk management tools to help manage the business deposits, including setting tiers based on volume and history, beginning at $25,000 a day and going on up to $500,000.
Checks are a big piece of our business. They’re still a prominent form of payment, and our members need a way access their cash as soon as possible.
For some of the larger users, the credit union provides scanners. The mobile option is intended to appeal to smaller operations and sole proprietors. These members don’t normally handle large numbers of checks, but the credit union is planning to provide an option to deposit up to 30 checks per mobile deposit without the fees imposed after, for example, 20 deposits per month in a business account, Galvan says.
California Credit Union uses Ensenta solutions for its RDC services. Find your next provider in Callahan’s online Buyer’s Guide.
Risk management takes place alongside ensuring the RDC functionality.
Business banking members of California Credit Union have a new mobile app to make remote deposits.
The back office contains four employees, Galvan says, and the biggest support issues typically involve problems with end-user permission settings and operating systems.
Risk management, meanwhile, includes an annual review that demonstrates settings and tiers are appropriate to the market and the user, Galvan says.
Speaking of the market, marketing RDC hasn’t changed much since the credit union first began offering it in 2008, Galvan says.
We advertise it on our website, but the national brands in banking have done the marketing for us, by making RDC something our members expect, he says. The work to do here is with our tellers and MSRs to make sure they know it’s available since they’re the ones who see the most check volume.
And according to Galvan, that volume isn’t going away anytime soon as predictions of the death of the paper check remain premature.
Checks are a big piece of our business, the vice president says. They’re still a prominent form of payment, and our members need a way access their cash as soon as possible.