Christian Community CU: Outsourcing Strategically

Introduction

Christian Community Credit Union who has been utilizing Aux’s compliance assistance service since 2018. The retirement of their VP of Compliance, a 42-year veteran of the credit union, was the catalyst for Christian Community COO Marji Hughes to explore other options. After reaching out to Aux for information, Hughes was pleased to find that her credit union would be able to reduce the position’s operational costs by over 75% if she chose to outsource instead of rehiring the position. Hughes knows a thing or two about credit union operations. She has been involved in the credit union industry for 33 years, starting as branch manager and working up through all the business units to become COO.

In this study, you will learn how:

1. Outsourcing parts of your credit union’s compliance can have significantly lower costs than hiring an FTE.
2. You can reallocate the costs saved on salary and benefits to improve other areas of your credit union.
3. A team of outsourced compliance experts can provide a wider spectrum of knowledge and interpretation than one single specialist can.
4. Compliance doesn’t have to be a core competency – it can be outsourced like any other skilled service.

Over a 75% Reduction in Costs

Knowing the operational savings would be substantial, Christian Community CU opted to work with the Aux Compliance Team, which included the CUSO’s popular Compliance Marketing bundle. “We have utilized the marketing compliance area quite a bit. The staff at [Aux] are doing the same amount of research that the VP of Compliance was doing,” said Hughes. There is one big difference however, and that is the substantial decrease in cost for the credit union. “The cost savings were huge – Aux’s compliance services cost 22% of what it cost for salary and benefits for our VP of Compliance,” said Hughes.

Reallocating Money to Needy Areas

Outsourcing compliance often comes with a savings of over $50K, and many credit unions that utilize the service reallocate the extra money to needy areas of their organization. This could be in hiring staff in other departments, training and promoting current staff, or investing in tools and resources to streamline efficiency. Christian Community used their cost savings in two ways. The first: “It freed up money to staff in areas where we needed staffing, and we were able to bring in resources for other departments. We hired one additional person in a totally different department that we really needed,” explained Hughes.

The second: “We kept the BSA area of compliance in house, which allowed us to create an additional role for a current employee. Her new role gave her room to grow – it is like a second skin to her.” Using the cost savings from outsourcing improved other departments and allowed the credit union to nurture an employee growth track.

Breadth of Knowledge

Aside from hard cost savings, the single biggest benefit credit unions appreciate across all of Aux’s back office outsourced products is the breadth and depth of knowledge it brings. Because the Aux Compliance Team collectively has over 100 years of credit union-specific experience and has assisted over 50 credit unions, they know the ropes more than any single employee can. “They see so much more than our VP would have seen just working here, because they support so many other credit unions and have a totally different vantage point,” explains Hughes.

Compliance Doesn’t Have to be a Core Competency

One thing that’s for certain is that credit union employees are known for wearing multiple hats. Another thing that’s for certain is that keeping up to date on compliance is a huge endeavor. More credit unions are realizing that they don’t have to be fluent in compliance, because having an outsourcing partner can do the job just as well. Credit unions are abandoning the notion that compliance “needs to be in-house.”

COO Hughes looks at a compliance officer like an attorney or auditor – something you can easily outsource. “I would outsource as much as humanly possible if I could, because being able to serve my members is most important. If managing compliance takes you away from serving your members or a valuable employee away from doing something that provides a better level of service, then outsource it. Compliance is compliance is compliance. All you need is an expert to guide you.”