New Credit Union In Town | Webster First makes a splash in Worcester
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Webster First Federal Credit Union's new headquarters on Greenwood Street in Worcester opened in July.
Photo/Courtesy
Michael Lussier, president and CEO of Webster First Federal said the building allowed the organization to consolidate many of its operations.
Webster First Federal Credit Union has entered Worcester in a big way. Well, truth be told, the credit union, with $465 million in assets as of June 30, has been in Worcester County for quite some time, but it wasn’t until this summer that it consolidated its back office operations in a $12 million facility on Greenwood Street.
The new digs offer the credit union more space — three floors and 85,000 square feet to be exact — and a new headquarters in the largest city in Worcester County.
Webster First was founded in 1928 and moved to its previous headquarters in Webster in 1967.
The credit union reached $100 million in assets in 1986 and now has nine branches in Webster, Auburn, Douglas, Dudley, Charlton, Worcester, Spencer, Whitinsville and West Boylston.
The WBJ spoke to Michael Lussier, president and CEO of Webster First Federal, about the new headquarters building. He joined the credit union in 1987. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.
What was the impetus for the new building in Worcester?
Well, basically the credit union had spread its operations personnel and subsidiary operations throughout our branch network and we needed to get everyone together to create efficiency. We needed to build a place where everyone could be together.
What are those subsidiary operations you mention?
We have several that offer mortgage, insurance and title services. All are credit union-related operations.
Many credit unions contract those types of offerings out. What made you decide to keep them in-house?
We’ve developed those subsidiaries starting in 1995. The goal was to become more independent and do things ourselves. We’ve been able to continue to create efficiency, save money and bring better prices to our members.
So why build the new 85,000-square-foot building in Worcester? Why not just rent?
We wanted to begin to do different things moving forward. We wanted to get into financial literacy and educational programs. We were able to build space for that within this facility.
What we have here is not only operations, but also space for training and educational programs to help the community, including students and small business owners.
And I know there’s no other institution around that’s doing any of that. And that’s going to make us different and stick out. This facility is also one of the most high tech in the city.
In what way is it high tech?
In the programs and the computer systems that are installed
And why Worcester?
The Webster First Federal Credit Union serves the entirety of Worcester County from the New Hampshire border down to the Connecticut border.
Our operations were pretty much in the southern part of Worcester County and we realized that if we were going to expand at all, we needed to look at all locations throughout the county.
What could be a better location than the center of our field of membership, which is Worcester?
Webster First Federal is not the only financial institution to locate in Worcester recently. Do you see that as a trend or a coincidence?
We’ve been in Worcester since we took over the Norton Co. credit union in 1987. So, we’ve been in Worcester for years. I don’t know if it’s more institutions coming into Worcester or just an expansion of branches.
You currently have nine branches. Do you have any plans for additional branches?
Yes. We do plan to expand our facilities. We are going to do some loan centers, but the locations are unknown at the present time.
Our eyes are out looking, but we don’t have anything in writing. That’s another benefit of this building — we needed to build this building in order to put infrastructure in place to make that expansion happen.
We were basically squeezed out of all the space necessary. We’ve actually added seven new employees in the last month — which is good for Worcester.
Did you have to think twice about proceeding with this building project considering we are in a recession?
We actually saved for the last 10 years for this building. We put some of our funds aside every month to make sure we could do this when we wanted.
You used to work in Webster every day, but now you’re in Worcester. How do you like it?
I love it. Everybody loves the new facility. It’s roomier and all the departments are departmentalized as opposed to all working together.
There’s been a lot of consolidation in the banking sector locally. Do you expect a similar trend in the credit union market?
On the national level, there are mergers every single day, six days a week. There are 9,000 credit unions in this country.
People don’t realize that. With that said, there are some institutions that are very small and they are having a difficult time in this economy. So, could more consolidation happen in Worcester County? It could.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
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