WESTERLY, R.I.–Westerly Community Credit Union held its annual meeting at which it offered a brief review of the highlights from the year-end 2022 financial statements, as well as other updates.
The numbers show assets increased 9.84% to $452.76 million, member deposit balances increased 7.47% to $401.53 million, and outstanding loan balances at year end were $359.11 million, an increase of 20.26%. Net income for the year was a solid $3.47 million generating a Return on Average Assets of 0.80% and a Return on Average Equity of 10.48%. Membership increased by 11.6% to 22,436.
“The credit union’s solid performance in 2022 was driven by record loan demand resulting in the origination of $162.53 million in gross loans and lines of credit for the benefit of the members of which $90.70 million was in consumer loans, $58.19 million was in real estate loans and $13.64 million in member business loans,” WCCU said. “As a result of this activity, the credit union finished the year with a regulatory net worth ratio, a measure of safety and soundness, of 8.85% maintaining its Well Capitalized status.”
New Branch
Stephen J. White, Westerly Community Credit Union president and CEO, said the CU’s newest branch office located at 2405 Nooseneck Hill Rd in Coventry, R.I. enjoyed a successful first year of operations. As of year-end 2022 the office had 260 members with $7.18 million of member funds on deposits and outstanding member loans balances totaling $6.46 million.
White also reported that as part of its “WCCU Cares” initiatives during 2022 the credit union helped more than 111 organizations through donations, fundraising, and sponsorships, as well as the board, supervisory committee members, and staff volunteering their time with 50 different organizations over the year.
As part of the community support efforts in 2022, the credit union made significant capital campaign commitments to Westerly Hospital, South County Health, and Wood River Health Services.
Fin Lit Efforts
During the past year WCCU continued its efforts to promote financial literacy in the communities they serve through multiple programs such as the Everfi Financial Literacy program sponsored by WCCU and being taught to over 780 students at the Westerly, Chariho, Exeter West Greenwich, Narragansett, and South Kingstown High Schools.
Additionally, WCCU is proud to sponsor Money Basics by URI which currently has over 450 users. WCCU also conducted real-life scenario based “CU4 Reality Financial Literacy Fair” for 320 students from the Chariho, Narragansett and Westerly high schools.
Chairperson Pete Stefanski presented his third annual report since his election and said that despite challenges of high inflation and rising interest rates, WCCU ended 2022 stronger than ever.
Other Milestones
WCCU said it achieved other important milestones in the community, as well, including:
- Promoting financial literacy within local schools by offering educational programs, such as The Money Mammals Kids Club, EverFi online Financial Education program, Cemark. and Adolescent$.
- Awarding19 Teacher Grants, totaling over $9,000 to teachers from Coventry, Exeter-West Greenwich, Narragansett, South Kingstown, Stonington, and Westerly school districts.
- Awarding five scholarships, totaling $5,500 to students from Chariho, Coventry, Westerly and Stonington High Schools. Finally, the Credit Union partnered with the University of Rhode Island to offer a co-branded financial education program, Money Basics by URI.
- Holding the Annual Holiday Basketball Tournament as part of which it donated $2,114 to each of the four participating high schools’ (Chariho, South Kingstown, Stonington, and Westerly) sports boosters’ organizations. This raises the total amount donated to participating high schools since 1984 to $267,033.
- Donating $75,000 to Wood River Health Services to help develop a new addition to the Hope Valley campus to meet increased demand for high-quality, broad-based services.
- Donating $150,000 to South County Health. This investment will allow the heath system to expand services, including improvements to the Radiation Therapy facility and the purchase of a new linear accelerator that emits specific doses of radiation with pinpoint accuracy directly to the tumor site.