First South Credit Union is moving on campus before the fallsemester after winning a bid from The University of Memphis tobecome the bank in and around The University.
This means that the Teachers Credit Union on Southern Avenue,FSCU's largest rival, had to relocate to 559 Erin Drive, nearPoplar and Mendenhall. Some faculty and students have complainedabout the loss of the Teacher's Credit Union near campus.
By opening the Tiger Banking Center FSCU hopes to tap into the20,000 student body that will someday be college educatedprofessionals. In order to better develop the customer base, FSCUmarketing executives are "already conducting meetings with facultyprovosts and deans to tailor," specific products and services tostudents and faculty, said Delynn Daniels senior marketing managerfor FSCU.
"We feel that the future of any financial institution is youngpeople," Daniels said.
"We are finding that we provide quality service and whicheverfinancial institution (someone) starts out with, they are loyal (tothat institution) and do stay with them for the long term," Danielssaid.
The full service center will also be different in that therewill not be any teller lines-- all of the services will either behandled on-line or through desk services.
To better attract The University community to the bankingcenter, the layout of the center will be radically different fromother FSCU branches.
The 3,000-square-foot center above the university book storewill have an open interior "with the feel of an e-center, withemail access, online-banking, laptop hook-ups, monitors-- sostudents can feel they can come take a break," Daniels said.
Some of the products they will market to students are studentloan consolidation, and loans for their first home or car, amongother things. For faculty, the products are geared more towardsindividuals who "are more financially stable." Such productsinclude home loan refinancing and no-cost mortgages.
"We can reach out to all of them (students and faculty). We havea wide product list," Daniels said.
Some of the suggestions of the focus meeting conducted byDaniels suggest that the bank should appear to "get involved, andbe a part of the community."
FSCU will offer financial education seminars to both studentsand faculty tailored to their respective financial maturity, suchas reviewing faculty credit reports and tax help. For studentsseminar topics will include basic financial education.
FSCU's marketing goal is become such a part of the universitythat "people feel if they just have a financial question they aremore than welcomed to come," Daniels said.
