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A Year Like No Other

It’s no secret that 2020 challenged all of us in profound ways. Despite everything thrown at us, our communities banded together to meet those challenges—and came out stronger in the end.

With that in mind, SELCO Community Credit Union developed and helped administer several programs to help in our communities, while continuing to partner with educators and nonprofits to financially support and sponsor worthy causes. We enhanced our digital banking services to ensure a safe, simple, and streamlined user experience. These timely efforts were designed to help our member-owners navigate a difficult time and continue to pursue their good-life goals. Our members have been our primary focus for 85 years—and will continue to be our top priority.

Thank you from all of us at SELCO for standing by us every step of the way.

A few of the words SELCO team members used to reflect on 2020.

Helping People through Tough Times

In 2020, countless individuals and businesses were deeply impacted by the global pandemic, the wildfires that ravaged the western United States, and the global economic recession. Here are some ways SELCO helped:

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). During a frenzied April, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) processed more than 14 years’ worth of loans to exhaust all the funds from the PPP. During that time, SELCO Commercial & Business Banking connected businesses to more than $25 million in PPP loans and a total of $29 million for the year. The program is back up and running this year—applications remain open through May 31 or until funds are depleted.

Emergency Loans for Multifamily Property Owners. To help keep landlords’ operations afloat while assisting their tenants, SELCO funded one-time advance loans and flexible lines of credit worth over $14 million.

Income Disruption Loans. SELCO members whose income was negatively impacted because of the pandemic were offered the opportunity to take out a low-interest loan. For the year, 1,054 Income Disruption Loans were funded for over $1.4 million (including more than $1 million in the first month alone). In September, this program was extended to members affected by the wildfires.

Special Skip Payments for COVID-19 and Wildfire Victims. Through this program, members were able to receive temporary relief from their monthly payments on eligible SELCO vehicle, credit card, or personal loans, and home equity lines of credit (HELOC). In 2020, SELCO processed 9,082 Special Skip Payments. In addition, 462 other loans were reworked to ease members’ burdens.

Emergency COVID-19 Relief Assistance. In August 2020, SELCO was one of eight Oregon credit unions and two banks that partnered with the State of Oregon to distribute one-time, $500 relief payments to Oregonians experiencing severe financial hardship due to the pandemic.

Safe, Streamlined, and Expanded Banking

Last year, SELCO made many operational changes to comply with state mandates and ensure the safety of our members and team members, including:

  • Enhanced digital tools. To ensure little or no interruption in service, SELCO made video and phone appointments more readily available in 2020. In addition, we launched a more robust Self-Service Resource Center, providing an easy-to-access, easy-to-use hub for SELCO’s digital banking services.
  • Expanded drive-up services. To continue providing in-person service to members amid business restrictions, SELCO pivoted many routine transactions (and team members) from branch lobbies to drive-ups.
  • Live webinars. In lieu of in-person seminars, SELCO offered webinars for members to attend from the comfort of their homes, including sessions for Medicare education (which are ongoing) and Medicare open enrollment.
Investing in Community

Despite a year in which face-to-face engagement was limited, SELCO kept alive our mission to improve our members’ social and economic position by donating more than $275,000 to educational and community partners. Here are some highlights:

SPARK! Creative Learning Grants. Pivoting to distance learning was one of the greatest challenges for teachers, students, and parents in 2020. Without the normal benefit of in-person classrooms, many of the 47 beneficiaries of SPARK! grants had to get even more creative with their projects. Several focused on making music at home (including one called “Jammin’ in your Jammies”), while others brought in technology to help teachers navigate the brave new world of virtual instruction. Grant money also allowed ongoing projects to survive and thrive.

“I know (distance learning) has made me a better teacher. The biggest challenge, for valid reasons, is student engagement. Some students' stories are really tragic, and simply accessing school is difficult right now. My goal is to teach novels with themes relevant to teens in order to foster student interest and participation. I'm so grateful to be able to use this grant money to purchase new titles for book clubs and am looking forward to creating curriculum that students will enjoy and that will hopefully make them feel invested in my class.”

- Nikki Baird, Bend High School teacher and SPARK! Creative Learning Grant recipient

SELCO team members in our community prior to the pandemic in early 2020.

Community sponsorships. In 2020, SELCO invested $173,356 in a variety of sponsorships. And with an unusual year came some unique partnerships, including:

  • The Boys & Girls Club. This sponsorship helped fortify the club’s Internet network so 75 youths could safely (and simultaneously) do their remote learning at the Club, with onsite tutors ready to lend a hand.
  • Albany Public Schools Foundation. SELCO was the presenting sponsor of a new Student Assistance Program, which provided food, school supplies, clothing, and fees for doctor appointments to support students facing homelessness, financial disadvantage, lack of parental support, and other educational obstacles.
  • Grrrlz Rock. The organization’s events went to a virtual format in 2020, including a newly introduced SELCO-sponsored Mentor Artist Interview Series, in which local and nationally known musicians share their experiences with rock stars in the making.

SELCO Scholarships. For the 30th year, SELCO continued its tradition of supporting students seeking higher education by awarding $2,500 scholarships to 20 worthy high school seniors in 2020. In the past five years alone, SELCO has awarded nearly $200,000 in scholarships through this program. For the first time, the ceremony was held virtually and was hosted on Instagram Stories on June 12, 2020. The ceremony consisted of a short introduction by Craig Carpenter, Senior Vice President of Lending & Business Solutions at SELCO, followed by highlights of all 20 scholarship recipients from across Oregon. The full ceremony was posted to YouTube and saved to SELCO's Instagram Highlights.

Financial & Strategic Highlights

Thanks to our 142,000-plus members and 389 employees, SELCO continues to have success financially and operationally. SELCO ended 2020 with nearly $2.2 billion in assets, $1.3 billion in loans, and $1.9 billion in deposits.

SELCO Mortgage had a banner year, funding 1,968 mortgages totaling $524 million. Put into perspective, the Mortgage team funded an average of 38 mortgage loans for $10 million per week in 2020. They were busy indeed.

Beyond our financial successes, SELCO also enjoyed significant strategic accomplishments, including:

Purchase of a new corporate headquarters. In December 2020, SELCO acquired a 61,000-square-foot professional office complex in a prominent business park in Springfield. Several non-branch teams will relocate to the new headquarters in late 2021.

Extra safety precautions for members & team members. To ensure safe, uninterrupted service once the pandemic hit, SELCO transitioned more than 200 team members to telecommuting work while placing safeguards in the branches to keep them open for our members.

Expansion of business banking. Improving SELCO’s business banking capabilities was a high priority in 2020. Work for this undertaking included:

  • Creating a comprehensive plan to launch a new online and mobile banking platform called BusinessPro. In 2021, we plan to onboard additional businesses to the new solution.
  • Performing a thorough analysis to help strengthen relationships with our third-party vendors.
  • Enhancing the business member experience by evaluating SELCO’s existing business banking services, rates, and fee structures against the competitive landscape.
Chairperson and President's Report

SELCO’s mission is to improve our members’ social and economic position. To achieve this mission, our activities revolve around four guiding principles: Safety and Soundness, Operating Efficiency, Quality Personal Service, and High Return to Member. Below are some of our most noteworthy accomplishments for 2020 in each of these areas:

Safety and Soundness: SELCO generated strong earnings and produced an ROA (return on assets) that exceeded projections and peer comparisons. However, the extraordinary deposit growth resulted in a decline to the capital ratio, which ended the year at 10.47%. This ratio is considered well capitalized per the industry’s standards for a safe and sound credit union as determined by the NCUA, the credit union industry’s federal regulatory body. In 2020, state and federal examiners provided SELCO with a fully favorable examination report.

Operating Efficiency: SELCO’s ongoing focus on operating efficiency and expense-side management resulted in an operating expense to average asset ratio of 2.74%. SELCO’s Strategic Execution Office evaluated and implemented multiple organizational process improvements that resulted in greater operating efficiency and improved member service.

Quality Personal Service: In 2020, SELCO branches processed 1 million transactions for our 142,000 members. We funded 19,266 loans totaling $504 million. SELCO Mortgage funded 1,968 mortgages totaling $524 million, SELCO Insurance Services wrote 2,412 policies, and SELCO Investment & Retirement Services managed $352 million in member investments.

Return to Member: In 2020, SELCO provided direct benefits to members through lower account fees, higher interest rates on savings and checking accounts, and lower interest rates on loans. We continued to help SELCO members borrow sensibly, save smarter, and invest wisely with our extensive menu of products and services coupled with industry-leading rates.

Thank you for choosing SELCO as your financial partner. We exist because of you.

Carol Beckley - Chair, SELCO Community Credit Union Board of Directors
Bob Newcomb - President/CEO, The SELCO Companies