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SAN DIEGO-Morgan Courtney was recently named by San Diego-based USA Federal Credit Union as vice president of Overseas Operations. Talking to Credit Union Journal readers from Japan, below Mr. Courtney talks about the challenges and unique nature of overseeing branches located in foreign countries.
CUJ: Where does USA Federal have overseas branches?
Courtney: USA Fed currently maintains 11 branch locations throughout Japan and Korea. Each branch is situated on a U.S. military installation residing in different parts of each country. We serve all four military branches: Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines.
CUJ: Ninety-nine percent of credit unions do not have overseas operations. What is unique about managing overseas branches that most CUs would not be aware of?
Courtney: Simply put, logistics. With USA Fed headquartered in San Diego, there is a small window of time where we have backoffice support infrastructure and the overseas branch personnel at work at the same time. On a good day, that window is roughly three hours. To some degree this is a good thing because it promotes self-sufficiency within...