Dear Members,
Happy Holidays!
You’ll notice something a bit different with this latest update from me. I’ve merged the Letter from the CEO with Coffee with Chuck, my monthly video update.
For those of you seeing Coffee with Chuck for the first time, welcome. Each month, I sit down with my sidekick and our company spokesman, Joe Mecca, and have a quick conversation about the latest Coastal news, while enjoying a cup of local coffee. We like to keep our members informed of what’s going on at Coastal, and even provide you with a look ahead so you know what to expect in the coming weeks and months.
In this installment, we enjoy a cup of Mariah, a Sumatra variety from Oak City Coffee Roasters, and cover a few important topics:
Holiday Hours
Once again, I’d like to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays. As a quick reminder, our offices will be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as well as New Year’s Day, so that our employees can enjoy time with their loved ones. For your convenience, teller service will remain available until noon on Christmas Eve.
Surveys
We periodically survey our members to measure satisfaction with both your overall relationship with Coastal, as well as with certain transactions like opening a new account, visiting a branch, or getting help from our call center. I’m happy to share that our most recent survey showed the highest satisfaction levels of the year. In fact, we’re now bordering on world-class scores. Thank you all for your support, and your willingness to promote Coastal to your family, friends and coworkers.
Of course, we’re not just interested in getting high scores. The information we receive from those surveys is taken seriously, and member feedback helps shape the decisions we make in how to keep improving our service.
So, when you see an invitation to complete a survey, please do. Each one is an opportunity to have your voice heard.
2018 Results
We’re wrapping up another strong year for Coastal, one in which we reached two significant milestones. This year, we surpassed $3 billion in assets for the first time, and have grown to serve more than 250,000 members. We also just passed the $2 billion mark in mortgages serviced for our members. Other metrics look great, too. And we expect net income for the year to be more than $30 million. This kind of result will enable us to keep rewarding members and making new investments in services that will benefit you. I’m anticipating a good start to 2019, as we are continuing to grow loans and deposits at a steady rate.
Good News for Savers
Strong loan demand will be good for our depositors, too. There are two primary ways we fund our loans – we can borrow money from a corporate credit union or the Federal Home Loan Bank, or we can work to attract more member deposits. I’ve always held the belief that we’d much rather pay our members than to pay interest to another lender.
If you’re a saver, you’re probably aware that we’ve been running certificate promotions throughout the year. Our current featured offer is 2.75% APY1 for 27 months.
In January, we’ll be creating a new High Yield IRA Savings2 product. All existing IRA savings accounts will convert to the new high yield account, and will see a rate increase. Later in the month, IRA members with direct deposits will see an additional bump in their rate. For those of you looking for even more IRA options, I encourage you to talk to one of the CFS3 advisors on our Wealth Management team team. If you haven’t hit your 2018 contribution limit, there’s still time put money into an IRA. Looking ahead, the 2019 IRA contribution limits are increasing to $6,000, as well.
That’s all I have for now. I hope you read something that has you feeling optimistic and looking forward to 2019. In the meantime, have a very Merry Holiday season and a safe and wonderful New Year.
Sincerely,
