With gratitude | A letter from our President & CEO
At OCCU, our vision is to enrich lives, and we are very purposeful in how we go about fulfilling that. It is quite simple, each day we focus on bringing you value and doing what we can to make a positive impact. We work to bring you the financial products and services you need, expanding our branch network, enhancing technology and evolving our workforce. As a member, you can trust that you are receiving personalized service, competitive rates on loans and deposits and fewer fees.
We believe fewer and lower fees creates more value, and we’ve eliminated and reduced more than 40% of member account-related fees – including monthly checking account service charges and temporary check fees. We are committed to continuing to eliminate and reduce fees to bring even more value to your OCCU membership.
In addition, it is important to us to support a healthy, thriving community. We are proud to partner with local nonprofits to aid in the delivery of vital community services, something that has become even more important in recent months. Through our OCCU Foundation, we provided support to our community through the pandemic, and we established a Fire Relief Fund to support those impacted by wildfires.
One hundred percent of Fire Relief donations will go to nonprofit partners dedicated to providing critical services to aid in rebuilding and recovery efforts across the state.
I’m proud to say that thanks to the generosity from our members, employees and partners and a matching gift from the OCCU Foundation, we have raised more than $240,000. To date, the Fire Relief Fund has provided grants to LOVEfirst and Relief Nursery to support their efforts to provide food, emergency lodging and other critical assistance to those impacted by the Holiday Farm Fire. Grants to Marion Polk Food Share and the Santiam Canyon Wildfire Fund have also helped to support communities impacted by the Lionshead and Beachie Creek fires. This is just the beginning of our support. The road ahead will be long as our communities work to rebuild. To those of you who have offered support, thank you for your generosity.
2020 certainly has been a year of unprecedented challenges. But it has also been one of opportunity. An opportunity for us to come together to serve and to give thanks. As we bring the year to a close and enter the holiday season, I am grateful to be a part of a community with such resiliency and tenacity to support one another.
On behalf of our Board of Directors and our more than 400 employees, thank you for your membership and the trust you place in OCCU. We know that you have a choice when it comes to your financial institution, and we are honored you have selected us as your partner. Have a safe and healthy holiday season.
With gratitude,
Ron Neumann
President & CEO