First Tech Federal Credit Union

First Tech Federal Credit Union

Type	Credit union
Industry	Tech industry Oregon State Employees and other regional sponsor companies
Founded	January 14, 1952
Headquarters	Mountain View, California, United States
Number of locations	40 branches (2014)
Key people	Greg Mitchell (President/CEO)
Services	Checking accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, home equity lines of credit, investment services, insurance services, tax services
Net income	US$90,603,000 (2013) US$62,801,000 (2012) [1]
Total assets	US$7,954,472,600 (2015) US$6,533,403,000 (2013) US$5,614,248,000 (2012)
Total equity	US$666,884,000 (2013) US$609,405,000 (2012)
Members	405,245 (2015)
Number of employees	920 (2014)[2]
Website	www.firsttechfed.com

Bank and office in Beaverton

First Tech Federal Credit Union (or First Tech) is a federally chartered credit union headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is regulated under the authority of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). First Tech has over 405,000 members, and over 7.9 billion dollars in assets with 40 branches located mostly in high technology business centers of California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and five other states and Puerto Rico.^[3][4] It was the first financial institution to offer telephone interactive voice response access and online banking.

History

First Tech began its life as Tektronix Federal Credit Union, formed by seven Tektronix employees on January 14, 1952. In 1961, the name was changed to Tektronix Employees Federal Credit Union to reflect the credit union's membership. From very early on, technical innovation was used and resulted in First Tech's motto of "Think Forward".^[5] As early as 1976, the credit union began using computers for online data processing. By 1979, Tektronix Employees Federal Credit Union had begun the use of ATMs. In 1985, the credit union unveiled Call 24 which allowed members to check balances and transfer funds by phone.

In 1986, the name changed to First Technology Credit Union and the membership opened to include employees in the technology industry of the Pacific Northwest. In 1989, First Technology Credit Union developed and implemented the first online banking. This helped lead to the 1992 addition of Microsoft to the First Technology membership. The 1995 launch of the company's website paved the way for the credit union to become the second financial institution in the world to perform secure internet transactions. Two years later, a decision was made to shorten the name to First Tech Credit Union. First Tech has remained an early adopter of new technology in the twenty-first century, offering mobile banking in 2000, account aggregation in 2001, and biometric two-factor authentication in 2007.^[6] With over 156,000 members, and over 1.8 billion dollars in assets in 2007,^[7] First Tech was one of the largest state chartered credit unions in the Pacific Northwest.

A branch in the Tanasbourne area

In March 2010, the company announced it would merge with California-based Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union, which served the employees of Hewlett Packard Company, Agilent Technologies, CH2M Hill, and many other technology based companies, pending government and member approval.^[8] The deal was approved by the government and credit union members, and became effective on January 1, 2011, with the new entity named First Tech Federal Credit Union.^[9]

E-billing, online pay conversion

In October 2015, the Credit Union made a change^[10] to their mobile banking and ebilling system. This change caused widespread payment failures among members. This massive failure prompted CEO Greg Mitchell to send the following email to the Credit Union's members on 3/8/2016:

_{Dear Members,}

_{Earlier this year, we began a staged conversion of our Online and Mobile Banking platforms to a new system that will allow us to add new features requested by our membership while maintaining the safety and security that all members need and expect. While change of this nature is always difficult, membership surveys noted that while members considered the old system to be “comfortable” and reliable, they also viewed it as obsolete and unable to support the emerging technologies that they crave and expect from a leader in technology. Regrettably, changing out that core platform has been a far more problematic experience than any of us expected. While our teams have been working hard to create a positive experience for all members it is clear that for some of you we have failed. I am truly sorry for the pain that we have caused.}

_{While most members were unaffected by this change, many of you experienced significant frustration with having to reset passwords, endure slow speeds and re-enroll in eBills. I feel your pain! Since beginning this conversion, I have read every word written on most social media sites, reviewed countless emails and listened in on many calls to our branches and Contact Center. I have also spoken with a number of members directly to hear their concerns and discuss plans to fix the problems. While I cannot “un-ring the bell” or move members back to the old platform, I can express my sincere apologies to those of you who have been negatively affected by the conversion.}

_{First Tech has taken the following steps to regain your confidence and ultimately delight you by delivering the type of experience you expect from America’s technology-focused credit union.}

1. _{After completing the conversion of 68,000 members to the new platform, we have taken a pause on future migrations to allow the team to fix many of the issues you have experienced. We hope to have most issues fixed in March with a resumption of enrollments in April.}
2. _{We are working with our bill payment partners to improve the eBills experience and make them easier and more secure to use. We will continue our proactive outreach to members who continue to struggle with the technology and work with you to complete enrollments.}
3. _{We are working with our online banking partner to improve system speed. Recent progress here has been quite positive! We recognize that your time is valuable and that delivery of safe, secure and fast solutions is a non-negotiable requirement.}
4. _{We are preparing to launch new card control features, person-to-person mobile money transfers, additional fraud detection and messaging tools and other benefits that will provide our members with the world-class experience they expect from First Tech. These changes will come in the later part of 2016 and beyond.}

_{We have been truly humbled by this recent experience and learned some important lessons about how to improve our planning, testing and, most importantly, about ways that we can better communicate with our members. I promise you that we will learn from these lessons and do a better job going forward.}

_{The 1,100 team members of First Tech remain focused on serving you and building a credit union that all members can be proud of. I want to once again apologize to those members whose lives were disrupted and whose time was lost. We will continue to work hard to restore your trust and confidence.}

_{First Tech remains a cooperative organization of members helping members. In this regard, I want to thank those of you who took the time to share your feedback with First Tech personnel. Working together we can and will become stronger.}

_{I welcome your comments and would invite you to email me directly.}

_{Best personal regards,}

_{Gregory A. Mitchell}

_{President & CEO}

Products

Besides standard banking services, First Tech also offers investment, insurance, and tax services to its members, including free bill payment service, an account aggregation service, and online access to check images. Union designated routing transit number is 321180379.

References

1. "2013 Annual Report" (PDF). First Tech Federal Credit Union.
2. "Second Annual ‘Season of giving’" (PDF). First Tech Federal Credit Union.
3. "Branch locations". Retrieved 2014-08-23.
4. "Addison Avenue / First Tech Merger Receives Member Approval" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-01-16.
5. Franklin, Diane (Feb 2004). "Tortoise or Hare?". Credit Union Management. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
6. Neil Roiter, Senior Technology Editor (21 April 2008). "Keystroke recognition aids online authentication at credit union". Information Security magazine. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
7. "2007 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-06-21.
8. Manning, Jeff (March 10, 2010). "First Tech Federal Credit Union announces merger". The Oregonian. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
9. "First Tech, Addison Avenue credit union merger OK'd". OregonLive.com. The Associated Press. December 3, 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
10. https://mint.lc.intuit.com/questions/1250068-first-tech-credit-union-is-in-the-process-of-changing-their-online-banking-system-i-am-in-the-test-pilot