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Setting Rates: A Balancing Act

Written by Greg Smith on 9/30/2009

At PSECU, we work very hard to protect our members' money. Those members fall into two groups - borrowers and savers. Our goal is to balance those competing interests and provide benefits fairly to both groups. In an ideal world that would mean great rates to savers and great rates to borrowers.

Members have brought a lot of their savings to PSECU, and we greatly appreciate the faith that they've shown in us by doing so. The problem is the return we can receive on deposited funds that are not being loaned to other members. Our investment options are highly restricted and limited to those that are federally insured. The downside is that these federally backed investments are generally earning less than what we're paying in dividends to members on their savings.

Which brings us to the balancing act between borrowers and savers. In this current environment, we have shifted our focus to our members who borrow from the credit union. Doing so uses up some of the surplus funds that our depositors have brought to the credit union. Once that surplus is reduced, we'll be able to get back to a position where we can move deposit share rates back to more typical levels.