Five Questions With: Gary E. Furtado

GARY E. FURTADO is the president and CEO of Smithfield-based Navigant Credit Union, which recently announced a plan to purchase a spinoff of Chartway Federal Credit Union in South Kingstown. / COURTESY NAVIGANT CREDIT UNION
GARY E. FURTADO is the president and CEO of Smithfield-based Navigant Credit Union, which recently announced a plan to purchase a spinoff of Chartway Federal Credit Union in South Kingstown. / COURTESY NAVIGANT CREDIT UNION

Gary E. Furtado is the president and CEO of Navigant Credit Union. The Smithfield-based credit union last week announced a plan to purchase a spinoff of Chartway Federal Credit Union in Wakefield, a village of South Kingstown.

The new branch would mark Navigant’s first in the southern part of the state, known as South County. Furtado talks with Providence Business News about the deal, the southern expansion and what it all means for members and employees.

PBN: How did this deal with Chartway Federal Credit Union come about?

FURTADO: We’ve always done branch surveys looking at where we want to go next and South County has always been on our radar, as we have quite a few members down there, especially in the lending area. There’s kind of been a demand for us to go to South County, which is a growing part of the state.

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I knew Chartway, which is in Virginia, had another branch in Rhode Island that they closed a few years ago. They got a new CEO, who I met, and I asked if he would be interested in us taking over that branch. They have a quite a few elsewhere, and the Rhode Island one is 700 miles away. His response was, “I’m brand-new, give me six months.” Six months later he called me and said he was coming up to Rhode Island and we got lunch. The deal works out for us; we get a branch in South County, and he seems very satisfied that we have the same culture.

PBN: Why did this entice Navigant and can you detail the financial terms of the deal?

FURTADO: What enticed us was the point that this branch was in South County. It is a branch with $55 million deposits, and it’s already up and running. We don’t have to attract new members and build it up, which takes time and money. They call this a spinoff. We had the business valued, we came together on a dollar amount for the business and it’s a cash transaction. I can’t disclose the details yet because it hasn’t been approved yet. The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulations and NCUA [National Credit Union Administration] have to approve it, but most importantly the 3,200 current members have to vote for it.

PBN: What does it mean to the credit union to be entering the South County market?

FURTADO: We went down to East Bay about five years ago. This is the next stop in the state – the next spot to go to. We’re now almost statewide and this adds to our footprint. It’s a fast-growing area, and like I said, we have quite a few members – about 1,000 members – down there. The majority are borrowing members and not having a branch near them has been a struggle to become a full-service member, so we hope we can expand the relationship.

PBN: How do you see Navigant growing in that part of the state in the future?

FURTADO: Chartway is a one-off. We’re going to go into Wakefield and do what we do in every community, which is get into the community and see what the community needs are and see how we can contribute to the community. We’re excited about growing there, but have no current plans [beyond Wakefield].

PBN: Should the current branch employees and/or members expect any layoffs or changes in service?

FURTADO: For employees, no. This was a very big concern from Chartway’s CEO Brian School, he wanted to know what would happen to his employees. We’ve committed to all seven employees. We will be hiring all seven employees and they will bring over their tenure and get on benefits immediately. Something else that is important is that I’m committed to keeping them in that branch. I’m not going to say offer them a job in Smithfield and expect them to drive 50 miles. For the members, they won’t see much change, but they will see a change in services: There will be more. Chartway, for instance, does not offer commercial loans, and we do, so we believe there’s a big opportunity for that. And now, their members have 15 more branches to go to.

Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.

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