Blog

Shared Branch Access during COVID-19

June 2, 2020

COVID-19 affected all kinds of businesses, including credit unions. Many credit union lobbies were open by appointment only. Others moved their all their transactions to their drive-ups.

Some credit unions chose to discontinue service to shared branch guest members during the crisis. This made it very difficult for members who rely on shared branching to access their accounts. We received many requests from members desperate to find a place to make a deposit or withdrawal. CO-OP Shared Branch, with the assistance of the state networks, worked diligently to keep the shared branch locator website updated so members could find the closest open branches.

Some area were harder hit with closures than others. It wasn’t unusual for a state to lose up to 1/3 of their active branches – principally branches without drive-up facilities. One state lost 68% of their available branches.

Other areas were less hard hit. Leisa Massingill from the Tennessee Credit Union League reported, “Out of our 74 Tennessee credit union outlet locations we had 17 close, mostly because they did not have drive thru at these locations. One of those closures was also due to their drive thru being out of order, but I’m happy to report that one is working again and back on the locator website. However, any credit unions that were not usually serving shared branch members at their drive thru are accepting them at the drive thru during this Pandemic. They don’t call us the Volunteer State for nothing.”

Of the approximate 5,700 Shared Branches, nearly 4,000 branches continued to service members, sometimes with modified hours or drive-up service. By the end of April, credit unions began announcing dates to resume service.