OnPoint launches local operations

Portland-based OnPoint Community Credit Union began offering banking, investment and other financial services this week from three Deschutes County branches.

The offices, two in Bend and one in Redmond, opened Tuesday, and all will be hosting grand-opening celebrations during the next two weeks.

OnPoint announced its expansion into Deschutes County in November and followed up the message in recent months with billboards, fliers and print advertising.

Over the 10 months since the expansion was announced, the financial services sector in Central Oregon went through major changes. Federal and state regulators closed three Oregon banks that had branches in Bend and Redmond. All were reopened by an acquiring bank.

OnPoint’s expansion into Central Oregon has been planned, credit union officials said Thursday. The move allows OnPoint to provide walk-in services to its 2,500 customers who live in the area full time, and about an equal number who may live elsewhere but spend a lot of time in Central Oregon. OnPoint also provides most of its services online.

OnPoint offers checking and savings accounts, loans, credit cards, investment and other financial services.

While banks and credit unions offer many of the same services, they have differences.

Banks generally operate on a for-profit basis. Publicly traded banks sell stock, and shareholders own the company.

Federal credit unions operate on a not-for-profit basis. They are owned by their members, who are also the customers.

Being customer-owned means credit unions focus specifically on the customers/members and customize services to meet their needs, officials with OnPoint and other credit unions say.

OnPoint Community Credit Union began business in 1932 as the Portland Teachers Credit Union, according to its website. It changed its name in 2005 and received a community charter allowing it to serve anyone in 10 counties, essentially along the Interstate 5 corridor.

It expanded into Clark and Skamania counties in Washington in 2007, and two years later expanded its charter again to move into Deschutes County, according to its website.

Five other credit unions offer services in Central Oregon, although only one is based here. Mid Oregon Credit Union has its main office in Bend.

OnPoint is the largest of Oregon’s 82 credit unions, with assets of $2.8 billion and more than 208,000 members, according to the National Credit Union Administration.

The next largest that operates in Central Oregon is Selco Community Credit Union, of Eugene, which has assets of $885 million and about 81,700 members, according to the NCUA.

OnPoint’s size gives it strength, and means it has money to loan both businesses and consumers, said Kelly Schrader, senior vice president-marketing and member services, and Paul Stednitz, regional vice president-Deschutes County.

Along with its banking services, OnPoint will be investing in the community, they said. The credit union is a co-sponsor of the Festival of Cultures, being held Saturday in Redmond; a seminar sponsor for Opportunity Knocks, and, Stednitz said, OnPoint will be a sponsor for Bend WinterFest 2011.

“We’re pretty excited,” he said. “That’s just the beginning.”