The future of finance
Sharonview Federal Credit Union CEO Bill Partin on 40+ years in financial services — and where things are headed
The following article appeared in the Dec. 20, 2022, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with business and local information for the Charlotte area. Sign up today:
Q&A: Retiring credit union CEO on the economy, the future of financial services — and why banks still have all those branches
Bill Partin, the retiring CEO of Sharonview Federal Credit Union, says partnerships with financial technology companies, or fintechs, will continue to drive innovation in financial services. (Photo courtesy of Sharonview Federal Credit Union)
Bill Partin started his career as a drive-up teller at a California bank. Now, 42 years later, he’s retiring at the end of this month as the CEO of Fort Mill-based Sharonview Federal Credit Union, which has more than 100,000 members and 18 branches in the Carolinas.
Partin, 62, spoke with Ledger editor Tony Mecia this month about changes in the financial services industry over the last four decades, his outlook on the economy and technological innovation. Remarks were edited for clarity and length.
Q. So what has changed in financial services in the last 42 years?
It’s been fun to think back. I started in commercial banking, back when the savings and loans were big.
For me, what's been interesting to watch is the consolidation of the industry. We look across the pond, and we see, like, four major banks in Europe. People are asking, “Hey, are we headed in that direction?”
Q. Where do you see this industry headed?
Fintechs that have shown up — these small, really nimble, fast, smart people that have come in and created products and services — I think that's going to continue. When you look at the big guys — the BofAs, the Wells Fargos, the Truists — they’ve got the deep pockets. They can spend the money on the technology.
We're good size credit union —we're in the top 250 out of 5,000 credit unions. We don’t have the pockets they have, so we're beginning to form partnerships with these small, nimble fintechs. More of that’s going to happen.
I think that the industry is going to continue to consolidate. Besides consolidation, I think we're going to have to continue to cooperate with each other as we work to provide a good competitive landscape against the big guys and provide options for consumers. I think that's what credit unions are really all about.
Q. A question I get all the time from people is: “If everything is going to digital banking, why are all these banks and financial institutions opening up branches all over the place?”
There are folks who say, “Branches are dead. They're going away.” That’s kind of a minority voice.
When you study the data, folks still find value. We’re starting to pick up more millennials, more [Gen] Z-ers, which is great. And they are definitely doing business digitally.
But I will tell you: There are still what I call “moments that matter.” When you're buying your first home, or you need help with your credit score, yeah, you can talk to someone on the phone. But sometimes, people want to get together face-to-face. We are finding folks still want to come in when they open an account. There is still some financial guidance that folks want.
We don’t need these behemoths. Our footprint is about 1,800 to 2,300 square feet. We made them small. We made them open. We blew up all our teller lines — we don't have teller lines. We used our pods.
If you need some help with a mortgage, we've got a mortgage loan officer typically sitting in the branch. If not, we can connect you via Teams or Zoom. We do all our wealth management business still pretty much face-to-face — folks who are saving for college or for retirement or for a home. So I still believe that there’s a spot for branches. I think what you're going to see is probably the continued shrinkage of space.
Q. Nobody has a crystal ball, but what sort of signals are you seeing on the economy, in terms of the deposits that you have, how consumers are spending their money, lending, that kind of thing?
Interesting dynamics. We’re seeing still a high degree of interest with our consumer loans around auto loans and personal loans. Folks that normally have been in a used car 24 or 26 months, we're starting to see that lengthen. Folks are getting their cars repaired.
Our mortgage market just dried up. We had a lot of folks lock in at low rates. But we saw our pipeline really kind of dry up from a mortgage perspective, because rates went up. I'm a believer right now we're in a recession.
We've seen just a slow rise in delinquencies and charge-offs at this point in time. We're budgeting for that to increase through 2023. It’s literally just been the last two months that we’ve actually seen our charge-offs blip up a bit.
We're starting to hear of people laying people off, right? So we’re going to start to see people not being able to make payments. We take a lot of pride in working with our members making sure they stay in their cars, stay in their homes.
I wish I had a great crystal ball. I would be probably on an island somewhere sipping a drink.
Q. Any parting words of advice?
The one thing I wanted to share with you that I’ve really kind of made my mantra here is a guy named Jim Rohn had a quote that I’ve adopted: “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” I just love that personal development angle. I’ve always been a big fan of trying to be a better version of Bill today than I was yesterday.
It’s something I went public with about two years after I got here. And I said, “This is going to sound strange coming from the CEO, but if you bring your ‘A’ self into the shop — because we know you’re a whole person, you’ve got family, you’ve got friends, you’ve got a life outside of here — I think that’s going to make a difference in the lives of our 114,000 members.” I can’t say it’s 100%, but from the engagement work we do, and from the comments we get from our staff, they feel good about what they do here. And that makes me feel good.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project