New mobile bank will serve hard-to-reach communities

A local credit union is launching a new mobile branch aimed at providing financial services to residents in hard-to-reach communities.

Achieva Credit Union has retrofitted a 29-foot Freightliner Chassis RV into a “branch on wheels,” bringing its services to the streets of St. Pete. The mobile branch offers a wide range of services comparable to those available at traditional brick and mortar branches. Customers can open new accounts, transfer money, use the RV’s built-in ATM and even print debit cards on-site. The employee working inside can also help get customers more comfortable with using online banking features.

“It’s an initiative to bring banking to members that may struggle or don’t have the ability to make it to one of our local branches,” said James Cartier, Assistant Branch Manager at Achieva Credit Union in Pinellas Park. Cartier identified seniors, people with disabilities and residents without their own transportation as communities they plan to target.

Inside Achieva’s new mobile branch.

Mobile bank branches have become an increasingly important innovation in the financial services industry, offering a flexible solution to reach underserved communities and respond to emergencies, such as a hurricane or other disaster knocking out power and shutting down brick-and-mortar bank branches. With meteorologists forecasting a particularly active hurricane season this year, Sarah Hussain, Market President at Achieva, said it’s the right time to launch mobile services.

“Living here in Florida, we know all too well what can happen during a natural disaster like a hurricane, and one of the things people most often overlook is having cash on hand if ATMs and credit card systems go down,” Hussain said. “We’re right in the middle of hurricane season right now, so wanted to have our Achieva Credit Union mobile branch up and running in case it’s needed here in the northern counties, from Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough, to even down in our southern counties.”

“We can open [the mobile branch] in 45 minutes and be up and running,” Cartier added.”So wherever we need to go, we can react and respond quickly.”

Mobile bank branches can be used for community outreach, financial education programs and special events, helping institutions build stronger relationships with the communities they serve. Achieva plans to start bringing its new mobile branch to community events this fall. While specific events are still being finalized, Hussain mentioned they would also like to use the vehicle to promote youth financial literacy by visiting schools in the area.

“Then they get the whole experience; it’s not just us going and talking to a classroom,” Hussain said. “If you walk inside, there’s a computer, an Achieva employee, everything that you would see in a brick-and-mortar branch.”

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