Building a Profitable Member-Centric Credit Union With Margarete Mucker of Star One

Chances are, you’ve heard of Star One Credit Union. It’s one of Silicon Valley’s largest member-owned financial institutions.

And because it’s surrounded by the Facebooks, Googles and Apples of this world, it has more than $10 billion in assets with less than 115,000 members. (Psstt… That’s pretty impressive.) It also has a 90% retention rate, thanks to its efforts to serve its members. (Psstt… Also pretty impressive.)

One of the leading forces behind this customer-centric culture is Margarete Mucker. She’s been with Star One Credit Union for more than 28 years. As the Executive Vice President of Operations, Margarete is constantly exploring new ways to meet member needs through remote services and digital banking channels.

Because Star One understands its clients have large amounts of money with multiple institutions — sometimes around the world — the credit union has focused its efforts on optimizing money movement. In fact, Star One was one of the first financial institutions to partner with Zelle, the digital payments network.

In this episode of the Digital Banking podcast, Margarete explains the importance of Star One’s member-centric approach and how it balances that with profitability. She also dives deep into the money-movement ecosystem and even gives us a glimpse at what initiatives she and the Star One team plan to focus on next.