Credit union changes business model in ‘banking revolution’

A commercial and billboard campaign stating that “a revolution is coming” isn’t pushing for a government overthrow.

It’s promoting a revolution in banking.

ABC-7 talked to the CEO of evolve Federal Credit Union, the organization behind the ad campaign, about the changes to the credit union that are a first in the city.

Ken Walters said starting this year, the credit union will pay its members annually for doing business with them — something not being done by any El Paso financial institution.

“I’m happy and proud to say that we paid out $2 million back to our membership in the form of a patronage dividend,” Walters said.

More than 9,000 members received anywhere from $10 to $3,000 earlier this month, to coincide with the launch of eFCU’s new business model. The new model is turning its focus away from branches and in-person transactions.

“As we started the path toward more electronic delivery channels, we started seeing fewer people going into branches and higher operating costs generated for those transactions,” said Walters. “We felt that it was time to flip the switch.”

What comes with the change is closing down branches. Walters told ABC-7 the credit union leaders are trying to trim down to only four to five from the eight currently in operation. That also means cutting the number of employees. Walters said staff has been reduced from 135 to 107 — but that it was a necessary move.

“We felt for the future, this direction was what we wanted to do to be around for years,” he said.

Evolve also hopes to grow its membership and continue paying out dividends to members annually.