Meridian, Ontario’s largest credit union, recently launched a new manager-owned branch model and installed mortgage industry veteran, Paul Bath as the owner and manager of its first “agency” location.
Meridian, Ontario’s largest credit union, recently launched a new manager-owned branch model and installed mortgage industry veteran, Paul Bath as the owner and manager of its first “agency” location.
“We’re taking the unique ‘Meridian experience’ our current Members feel so strongly about and we’re rolling it out through exclusive partnerships with respected financial experts like Paul,” Bill Whyte, Meridian’s chief member services officer said. “We believe that we’re doing something truly different and innovative with this new approach; we’re creating a new business model to help solve the puzzle of achieving managed growth in a capital-constrained marketplace and allowing us to meet the needs of our Membership.”
Paul Bath brings with him more than 35 years’ experience in the financial services industry and the opportunity gives the veteran a chance to take pride in ownership of a well-established brand.
“It’s a true honour to have this opportunity to help Meridian introduce its new partner-owned agency model,” Bath said. “I’m looking forward to helping the credit union build its brand while at the same time introducing the people of Newmarket to their popular financial solutions.
“In addition, owning the Newmarket location with Meridian provides a great opportunity to create a business legacy for myself – something I can grow, cultivate and eventually sell to another financial expert,” he continued. “It’s a unique and worthwhile opportunity all around and I’m very excited to be a part of it.”
The new branches will be smaller than its traditional offices, though they will feature the traditional branding. And the company views the unique new offices as a viable and financially sound expansion plan.
“We adopted the kind of scalability we saw work so successfully in other business models and used it as the cornerstone for this new approach,” Whyte said. “Instead of allowing the capital strain associated with expansion to inhibit the growth of our credit union, we chose to view it as an opportunity to pave the way for a new form of expansion.”
