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CUMBERLAND AND DAUPHIN COUNTIES
Call it the trendsetter for the credit union industry.
Call it a glorified billboard company with 53 branches and counting.
As long as that phone is ringing and a growing number of people are walking through the doors to open new accounts, Lower Allen Township-based Members 1st Federal Credit Union is not going to stop investing in real estate.
"It encourages people to join us. It's a visibility issue," Bob Marquette, the credit union's president and CEO, said of Members 1st's continued pursuit of new branch offices across Central Pennsylvania.
While the state average for credit union branches is two (see "Branch approach in Pa.," page 4), Members 1st - already the leader in the clubhouse - is planning to open five more this year in Cumberland and Lancaster counties.
"We fully intend to grow and grow as quickly, if not quicker, than we have been growing," Marquette said.
He would not say how much the credit union budgets for annual branch growth. "It depends on a variety of factors," he said, which includes everything from location to the size of the building and staffing.
Members 1st uses three branch prototypes. Which one is built depends on the market, proximity of other branches, and what products and services exist at those established sites, Marquette said.
"We are determined to add branches and push out the market," Marquette said. That includes financial services in seven counties.
That branch-first mentality so often associated with banks - some of which, including PNC Financial Services Group, are now rethinking that traditional model - continues to pay offfor Members 1st. It added more than 41,500 accounts in 2012 and nearly 36,000 in 2011 compared with previous years, according to financial statements submitted to the National Credit Union Administration.
Pennsylvania's No. 3 credit union (see "Top Pa. credit unions, by assets," this page) is growing those accounts by a much higher margin compared with the Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, or PSECU, which is the second-largest credit union. PSECU added more than 16,000 accounts in 2012 and about 9,500 in 2011, according to its financial statements.
PSECU president...