HERE FOR GOOD \ VISION CREDIT UNION 75 YEARS
harder times for its members. And those
members needed answers. “Anytime a
member came in with a question about
interest rates, you were there at the
counter to explain the benefits of dealing
with the credit union over and above the
financial aspects,” says Mickey Mohan.
“It wasn’t uncommon to stand at that
front counter for several hours.”
Then, just as the double-digit interest
rates and national recession began to
ebb, Alberta was hit with a devastating
provincial recession driven by low oil
prices. Albertans were struggling, out of
work and defaulting on loans in larger
numbers than ever before. “It was the
worst economic time in my whole life,”
says Alan Fielding, who joined the credit
union’s board in 1981 and was Board
President until 2021. “The credit union
system was in serious risk of failing.”
Thanks to Terry Kelly’s focus on fiscal
discipline, Battle River Credit Union held
its own, but many other credit unions
teetered on the brink. If a credit union
had been allowed to fail, explains
Fielding, the impact would have been
ruinous for the whole system.
Fortunately, in 1985, the provincial
government decided to backstop the
Credit Union Deposit Guarantee
Corporation (CUDGC), stating that
if CUDGC couldn’t cover members’
deposits, the government would step
in and pay.
“For a financial institution, investor
and depositor confidence is everything…
After about eight or ten years, the whole
system got back on its feet,” says
Fielding. “Battle River Credit Union was
sort of in the vanguard of that because
we were doing okay.”
While the government supported a
system that it knew Albertans valued,
Battle River Credit Union and its
members supported each other. Steve
Friend, CEO of Vision Credit Union,
who started as a teller in 1983,
remembers that relationship well. “In
the early days, our rates weren’t as
good as what the banks were offering at
the time, but what we were able to offer
people was the fact that we were their
partner… somebody that they could
count on when the chips were down.”
Turning points
– profit sharing.
In 1983, in the depths of that economic
slump, then-Board President Leif Osback
proposed a Patronage Reserve for
members, the roots of Vision Credit
Union’s current profit sharing program.
“Leif believed in the value of giving
people back the profits,” says Steve
Friend. “He came up with a unique way
of doing it by returning profits to the
members that had borrowed money with
us and by bonusing the people that had
deposits with us.”
The plan was to achieve a Patronage
Reserve of 3.5 percent of assets by
1989. By 1988, the reserve had
surpassed this goal, and the credit
union began issuing dividends to
members. It was a welcome turning
point for the credit union.
“The biggest change we felt in the
branch was after the (prime rate) went
down, with the introduction of the
common shares. That’s when we started
to gain an advantage over other
competitors,” says Mickey Mohan, who
was managing the Duggan Mall branch
at the time.
“And so the credit union gained
strength,” explains Friend. “The more
that people dealt with us, the more we
were able to pay them back through
profit share.”
Today, Vision Credit Union allocates
about 75 percent of its profits each year
to its profit share program, which offers
some of the highest returns per member
in the country.
1 The second location of the
Camrose Savings and Credit
Union branch.
2 The exterior of the Flagstaff Credit
Union branch in Sedgewick.
3 Gerrit Oldekamp and credit
union board members at the
AGM in 1975.
4 Uniformed staff at the 51 Street
branch in 1972.
5 Mickey Mohan, former Senior Vice
President of Operations started at
the credit union in 1978.
6 GM Terry Kelly (front, centre)with
head office staff in the 1980s.
7 Steve Friend, now CEO, at head
office in 2002.
1988
/ Constructed new branch in Viking. Issued
first profit shares dividends to members.
Assets: $56.5 million.
1991
/ Added a second story to head
office building. Assets: $70.4 million
1996
/ Introduced Mutual Funds,
Teleservice, and Choice Rewards.
Assets: $105.5 million.
1998
/ Introduced Internet Banking Service.
Moved Duggan Mall branch to
newly built West End Branch.
Assets: $132 million.