Barely recognize the BECU I came to. Two years into new leadership, with tons of change, and most of it negative. Strategy is changing - hired a banker who ran credit cards for Wells, and now BECU aspires to be a national issuer. Rapidly losing community focus, with employees and new leaders spread out all over the country, compounded by a fully optional remote work model. Prior exec leaders saw this coming and most of them left / retired. Replaced by remote execs with no CU background or connection to the community. New perspectives are always good, but there is infighting among them and passive aggressive behavior that the prior team didn't demonstrate.
Happy to get on the train, but I am still waiting. Bottom line focused, and deposit rates are suppressed because ROA is so low, yet we continue to add to an excess capital position. National aspiration but no solution for memership restrictions except through association, which will attract single-product, expense and non-loyal members. Expenses are way up, deposits and assets are flat for two years, and membership growth is slowing. Aside from some new branches, there have been very few meaningful member enhancements in two years.