innovation cu

Six rural communities in Southwest Saskatchewan will soon lose their Innovation Credit Union branch.

The institution announced today that the branches in Climax, Coderre, Hazlet, Pennant, Sceptre and Shamrock will close effective October 1st.

"A lot of work went into the analysis and the due diligence around making a decision," said Innovation Credit Union CEO Dan Johnson. "Really, it boiled down to four key criteria. We looked at everything from a statistical point of view, from a community profile point of view and also a financial viability element. The fourth thing, I think is important, is in our smaller branches is the safety of our staff. Some of our locations have a limited staff, which are prime targets for things like robbery."

Full interview with Innovation Credit Union CEO Dan Johnson

Johnson added that the ways that members use the Credit Union have changed, and fewer transactions are now being made through visits to their branches.

"This is a big part of our analysis, the volumes of in-branch transactions are going down extremely fast across the industry and also here at Innovation," he said. "Members are more and more used to alternate forms like using our call centre, mobile banking or Internet banking, so the impact isn't as great as it once was, even just five years ago where people did a lot of in-branch type work, a lot of our members are endorsing the alternate channels. There will be impact and some will have to potentially change their way of banking and focus more on electronic."

In many of these communities, the Credit Union branches were its only financial institution and one of its few remaining businesses, and Johnson says it's also unfortunate that these communities might be affected economically.

"In Saskatchewan, we're experiencing large growth, but urbanization is a reality for us," he added. "A lot of the economic activity is not focused on all communities equitably or equally, and unfortunately, that means some communities just do not have the opportunity to sustain all services."

Johnson says up to seven employees will be affected by the closures, but they will be able to seek other opportunities within the Credit Union if they wish.

He adds members concerned about the closures can contact him directly through a form on innovationcu.ca, and they can also attend member meetings scheduled for the affected communities this June.

June 10 - Pennant Community Hall, 12:00 noon
June 10 - Hazlet School Gym, 7:00pm
June 26 - Coderre Hall (Shamrock and Coderre members), 12:00 noon
June 27 - Climax Community Hall, 12:00 noon
June 28 - Sceptre Town Hall, 7:00pm