For 59 years, Columbus Credit Union has proudly operated as a small-town institution – started by Knights of Columbus members, run out of a church basement for the first few years, and in a historic building on Warren’s Main Street since 1958.
As banking has changed, Columbus has evolved, adding an ATM, then online services. But a $20 deposit is still all it takes to become a member, with a voice in the organization. And just like in the old days, it’s an intimate place, where people know and care for one another.
Now Columbus is preparing to take a big step. Sometime this fall – late September to early October, said CEO Cidalia C. Rocha – the credit union will open a second location, in the former East Providence Credit Union building in Riverside, at 3 Crescent View.
EPCU shut down after the state’s credit union crisis in the early 1990s, and most recently, the building had been a pizza restaurant on one side and a print shop on the other, Rocha said. It had been vacant for more than two years.
Columbus is investing about $1 million on a “total rehab,” she said. “We’re pretty much keeping the shell. There was one drive-through there, and we’re adding two more. And we’re completely redoing the inside.”
The new branch, which is expected to employ six people, will offer all the services available in Warren, enhanced by drive-up windows, an ATM and a child activity center.
Columbus is also part of a shared branching network, so members will not only be able to bank in Riverside and in Warren, but also at credit union locations throughout Rhode Island and across the country – plus online, of course, Rocha said.
Plans for a new branch had been in the works for three or four years, Rocha said, and clearly the financial outlook was more favorable then, but the prospects still look good.
“It took a long time to get all the approvals from the state, and now that we’re into it, we’re going to go forward,” she said. “It makes as much sense; it just may take us a little longer to reach the goals that we established. Assuming that the branch would make a profit in two years, now maybe it’ll take three, for example.”
“We have a few hundred people already in the West Barrington/Riverside area, so it’ll be good for them, and we hope to attract more,” she said. And after the turmoil of the last several months, the climate also seems to be favorable for smaller, local institutions.
“That has been my sense, that people today feel that small is safe,” she said. “I just got an e-mail today from a member saying, ‘Thank you for taking care of [my problem]. The personal touch is why I stay with Columbus Credit Union.’ I get that kind of stuff every day. People do like the small, personal touch. People like to know that they can call me. I may have the CEO title, but I’m still here.”
Being a credit union – run by its members, with no shareholders to earn profits for – also enables Columbus to offer more favorable terms than most banks, Rocha said. The fees tend to be lower, for example, and interest rates on loans are somewhat lower.
“It’s not a very large number, but they’re better,” she said.
In Warren, Columbus is active in the community, sponsoring local sports teams and supporting nonprofits, and Rocha sits on the board of the chamber of commerce. She’s already applying to join the East Providence Chamber of Commerce, and she added, “We will do … as much as we can in the Riverside area.”
But don’t expect this to be the first step in a broader expansion, said Rocha, who’s been at Columbus for 16 years.
“I don’t see that,” she said. “It’s taken us 60 years to get to one branch, so I don’t see anything like that. Not in my career, anyway. We’ll see.” •
