The Warfield Kootenay Savings Credit Union (KSCU) branch is closing on July 3 after 18 years of serving the community.
Nancy Crockett, vice president of sales and member experience at the credit union, says the branch is losing its in-person banking services, but customers will still have access to an ATM and a night deposit box.
“It will be in the same spot for now, but it may change in the future,” she explained.
“The six employees currently working at the branch will be transferred to other locations,” said Crockett.
“This branch is a unionized environment,” she said, adding that other KSCU branches are non-union.
“So, we will be following our collective agreement and going through the bumping process and working with the union and our human resources department through the transition.”
The building is owned by KSCU, but the future of the location isn’t yet known.
“We don’t have any plans in the immediate future,” said Crockett. “But we own various properties all across the Kootenays, so we will be looking to see what we will be doing with those in the near future.”
The credit union is closing the branch because of a decrease in customer traffic and in-person banking over the last few years. According to the credit union, customers are using online and mobile banking in increasing numbers, no longer justifying keeping the doors open.
“It has become increasingly difficult to justify two branches in close proximity of one another in the Greater Trail area,” read a press release announcing the closure.
The Warfield branch opened in 1997 when KSCU merged with the already existing Warfield Credit Union in the same location. The company’s commitment to original credit union customers at the time was to keep the branch open for at least three years, but have stayed open for nearly 20 years.
Warfield branch customers will now have to go down the hill to the Trail Branch on Farwell St. to do their day-to-day in person banking. The downtown Trail branch is open six-days-a-week with a 24-hour ATM.
