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Apparently, good news does travel fast, as evidenced by the recent strong media response to your League's outreach on the 2014 year-end growth of Maine's credit unions. In the past week, this success was highlighted in Maine's three largest newspapers The Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram and The Bangor Daily News, as well as in a lengthy interview on one of Maine's top radio stations, WGAN AM & FM. In addition to the media coverage on the statistics, your League also served as a resource on credit and debit card fraud and provided tips to help consumers protect themselves. TV stations in Portland and Bangor featured your League as the financial services expert on this issue.
"We continue to work with the media on a regular basis to develop and maintain strong relationships to not only get our message out but to also assist the media with information and resources on stories on a variety of topics. Our ability to get strong coverage and positive headlines on our 2014 year-end statistics represents our ongoing work with the media and our responsiveness to requests for comment on issues on a regular basis. It was great to see the success of Maine's credit unions, especially with adding 14,000 new members in the past year, receive attention from news outlets across Maine. Additionally, being contacted as a resource on stories on financial services issues that impact consumers highlights our knowledge, expertise and sophistication to the general public," remarked your League's President John Murphy.
In an interview with the highly-rated WGAN Morning News with Ken & Mike, which airs in southern Maine on 560 AM and 105.5 FM, Murphy spoke at length about the success of Maine's credit unions. "We have the largest surcharge-free ATM Network in Maine, 170 shared branch locations and the latest technology so we are well-positioned to serve consumers. Adding more than 55,000 new members since 2008 reinforces the continued popularity of credit unions in Maine. The value and benefits of the structure of credit unions as not-for-profit financial cooperatives is clearly something more and more consumers recognize and appreciate," Murphy told Ken & Mike in the interview which took place during the 7:00 a.m. hour, considered the prime time of morning drive radio.
Contacted by WGME CBS 13 for advice to consumers on news of an increase in credit and debit card fraud, potentially from some of the breaches that have occurred over the past year, your League's VP of Governmental & Public Affairs, Jon Paradise, urged consumers to "check their accounts regularly and take advantage of the fraud tools many credit unions and other financial institutions have in place. Unfortunately, fraud is an everyday occurrence so consumers need to be vigilant in monitoring their accounts and reporting any suspicious activity." The story aired on WGME CBS 13 and FOX 23 in Portland, and on ABC 7 and FOX 22 in Bangor.
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