CHROME preparing to take credit union members into new era
Christopher George, CEO of CHROME Federal Credit Union, pauses in front of a photo mural of Washington Steel’s Z-Mill in the entrance hallway to the credit union’s headquarters on Racetrack Road. The photo inspired him in the rebranding effort of the financial institution.
The CHROME logo in the main lobby of the credit union’s headquarters in North Strabane Township.
Exterior of the recently remodeled and expanded headquarters of CHROME FCU on Racetrack Road.
Christopher George, CEO of CHROME Federal Credit Union during an interview in the credit union’s community room.
MEADOW LANDS – Walking into CHROME Federal Credit Union’s headquarters on Racetrack Road is not unlike walking into an Apple store. Sleek lines, muted colors, tables for working on laptops and two employees at a long, unadorned counter waiting to handle anything from opening an account to arranging a mortgage.
Like Apple, CHROME calls its locations stores, and although unlike Apple – it’s not selling smartphones or tablets – it is offering retail banking’s services to its growing number of members with a big embrace of digital technology.
CHROME Chief Executive Officer Christopher George believes that now is not only the time to go digital, but that it’s also imperative if financial institutions hope to survive in the future.
During a 45-minute interview, he named once-standout companies in other industries that didn’t reckon with the disruptive technology of digital, including Kodak’s failure to introduce digital photography; and Border’s expansive but traditional bookstores that couldn’t compete against Amazon.com’s online bookstore and its Kindle readers.
George doesn’t deny that other commercial banks have added online and mobile banking services in the past several years,
“But we’ve flipped that around,” he said, stating that most banks offer digital services as an “add-on” to their traditional bricks-and-mortar approach.
“We believe in a digital model first,” he said. “Our stores are built for conversations, not transactions.”
He notes that while CHROME’s 18,000 members have access to a network of 50,000 fee-free ATMs, there are no ATMs at the credit union’s stores, which, save for one or two printers, are also paperless.
“Banking used to be a destination; now people just do it wherever they are,” because of mobile banking applications on their smartphones, he said.
CHROME morphed out of Washington Community Federal Credit Union two years ago, which itself was formed in 1991 to serve steelworkers from Washington Steel.
The merger gave CHROME two stores in Washington, one at 45 Griffith Ave. and the 440 Racetrack Road site, which has undergone an expansion and complete transformation over the past year.
At the time of the merger with WCFCU, George and his board knew they wanted to change things up, so they hired Pittsburgh-based Wall-to-Wall, an ad agency that branded the hamburger restaurant Burgatory.
George read up on the history of Washington Steel, and one day came across a photo of the company’s famous Z-Mill, the post-World War II creation of Polish immigrant and mechanical genius Thaddeus Sendzimir. The Z-Mill enabled Washington Steel to efficiently roll stainless steel sheets into uniform wafer-thin strip steel at a reasonable price, a production breakthrough that allowed the mill to keep up with booming postwar demand for the strip steel needed to make cars, washing machines, refrigerators and other durable goods.
George learned that chromium is mixed with iron ore to produce stainless steel, so he chose chrome as the name for the new credit union. He also learned that chromium appears in several different colors in its natural state, so the store uses several broad panels of chromium’s natural colors in the store’s decorating scheme.
A blown-up photo of the Z-Mill serves as a mural in the entrance to CHROME’s ultra-sleek store, and also is a visual nod to an earlier technology developed in Washington that was a game-changer for the steel industry. (The Z-Mill today is on display in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Technology in Washington, D.C.)
But a rebranding and physical changes aren’t the only thing contributing to the credit union’s new luster.
In August, CHROME merged with Pittsburgh Central Federal Credit Union, giving it a Wexford location and bringing it into Allegheny County.
As a result of the merger, former PCFCU CEO Patricia Morrissey was named chief financial officer at CHROME, which also recently announced that it has filled three newly created positions related to its digital-first initiative, one which adds a chief marketing officer to transform its website, blog and social channels into an educational destination for members seeking financial advice; and two digital lending specialists.
The PCFCU merger was preceded by CHROME’s assumption of the deposits and loans of the former Trailblazer FCU in Washington that was liquidated by regulators in July 2015.
Today, CHROME employs 52 and has assets of $170 million. It currently ranks seventh among the 140 credit unions in the region in terms of size.
Besides Washington and Allegheny counties, it has stores in Greene, Butler and Beaver counties, and is looking at broadening its reach some more.
“We just asked for permission to go into two more counties,” George said, adding that the growth strategy will be both organic and through acquisitions.
But CHROME’s proposition going forward will be less about bricks and mortar and more about digital banking. While Apple’s stores have been a bright spot on the U.S. retail scene, noted for their product displays and excellent customer service, the company sells a far greater volume of its products at its online site.
George’s projection is that most of the credit union’s customers will tend to use online and mobile banking services or phone into a call center more often than making a stop at one of its stores.
CHROME has signed on with Miami Beach-based Nymbus, a cloud-based software vendor that has launched Smartcore, a new generation product aimed at community banks and credit unions in the U.S.
The system includes transaction processing of accounts, deposits and loans, bill payments and document management, as well as providing assistance with digital marketing and new websites.
“We didn’t market for two years,” said George, who added that CHROME will roll out the new Nymbus system in July.
“We think there’s a nice mix with the digital experience and the call center,” he said, adding that CHROME employees are “universal employees” who are trained to do everything from open an account to arranging a mortgage.
George explained that credit unions are not-for-profit financial institutions that are owned by their members. CHROME is chartered to offer its services to anyone living in the areas it serves.
The arrangement, according to George, “lets us offer better rates, better technology and a better experience.”
He credits a “progressive” board for agreeing to take CHROME full speed in the digital direction.
While acknowledging the competition from numerous other credit unions in the area, George said they aren’t the most formidable worry. “Our biggest competition is everybody on the internet.”
But if the digital-first strategy works, the payoff could be significant.
“We want to be a $1 billion institution in the next 10 years,” he said. “I think we’ll get there before that.”