High Desert Bank
On June 15, Mid Oregon Credit Union completed a purchase and assumption of the loans and deposits of High Desert Bank totaling approximately $21 million. The conversion was successful with extremely few issues. We made direct contact by phone and mailings and made sure they had checks, debit cards, and other resources in place and ready to go immediately after the conversion.
Although 2018 was setting up to be another successful year at Mid Oregon already, with healthy economic and job growth forecasts for Central Oregon—this purchase gave us additional opportunities.
New Relationships
To us, it was a chance to add strength, build on our position in the community, and forge new relationships. To the customers of High Desert Bank, however, it had the potential to be like so many bank mergers and takeovers— an unplanned inconvenience. Our team set out to change that perception and make the process of “unbanking” as seamless as possible.
We carefully planned the transition process, determined the best way to communicate with our new members, and walked them through the steps. When the conversion occurred in mid-June, we were delighted to welcome our new members aboard with minimal issues.
Increases Commercial Services Capacity
While we’re happy to offer increased services and convenience to our new members, our existing members also reap the benefits. Four of the five employees at High Desert Bank have chosen to join our team, bringing decades of experience in serving commercial accounts and allowing us to increase our capacity to serve the needs of more local businesses.
An accomplishment like this can’t happen without a great team—folks who work well together, dig in to solve problems quickly, and put themselves in the member’s shoes. Our team strives to be humble and open to feedback (especially the difficult kind), so we can keep getting better.
More Frequent Member Surveys
We welcome your feedback too! We’ve increased the frequency of our member surveys to four times a year to be as responsive as possible. If you’ve participated recently, thank you for the valuable feedback. If you haven’t, feel free to leave us a message or comment on our website, www.midoregon.com.
Thank you for being a member of Mid Oregon Credit Union!
Bill Anderson
