Serving the Underserved to Maximize Credit Union Impact
AltaOne’s Director of Marketing & Community Development was recently interviewed by BadCredit.org about the credit union’s efforts to serve underserved communities and improve the inequalities that exist in income, wealth, and access to financial solutions.
In a Nutshell: Many banks and credit unions are weighing the pros and cons of maintaining a branch presence in an era of digital transformation. But California’s AltaOne Federal Credit Union considers a personal touch essential to its mission of serving underserved communities and rectifying financial inequalities. Its personalized approach includes communitywide education and philanthropy to help more people feel comfortable with and benefit from financial services. AltaOne is a credit union dedicated to expanding essential financial services and providing support to more Californian communities.
Data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) indicates that 4.2% of American households are unbanked, meaning they lack access to financial services. Although that figure is the lowest since the FDIC began tracking unbanked and underbanked individuals in 2009, it still translates to more than 5.6 million U.S. households.
As the world’s fifth-largest economy, California may seem relatively immune to financial exclusion. Yet, as the nation’s most populous state, it’s home to the highest number of unbanked and underbanked people compared to other states.
Embracing digital transformation may seem a logical strategy for companies interested in expanding access to financial services. But many underserved Californians, particularly within predominantly Hispanic immigrant communities, continue to prefer cash — a preference rooted in cultural and historical mistrust of traditional banking institutions.
That’s where AltaOne Federal Credit Union comes in. Chartered in 1947 as an institution for employees of the Naval Ordinance Test Station in Ridgecrest, California, AltaOne now has 12 branches and manages almost $1 billion in assets.
Through its community charter, it serves everyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers, or attends school in Kern, Inyo, Mono, and northern San Bernardino counties.
More than that, Director of Marketing and Community Development Chris Lowe said AltaOne is a credit union dedicated to addressing income, wealth, and access inequalities. Its mission is to leverage its status as a federally designated Community Development Financial Institution.
