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Through challenging economic times, Coast Capital is delivering value to members, employees and communities.

Building a better future for people, businesses and communities across Canada

Throughout 2023, I was often reminded of why Coast Capital’s purpose of Building Better Futures Together matters. In the last year, people and businesses in Canada have continued to struggle with inflation rates, record debt levels, and income instability. Many people find it hard to make ends meet, let alone get ahead.

Our focus is on making a positive impact on our members’ lives. We envision a future where people and businesses have the financial opportunities to thrive and grow their incomes. We’re aligning every facet of our business to drive toward this outcome.

This includes growing responsibly and continuing to invest in our credit union to help members in more ways. Our financial performance continues to show long-term resilience and consistency while operating within a testing economic climate. Despite the challenges, we have maintained the strength of our balance sheet and strong capital and liquidity positions. We also issued a new subordinated debt in the Canadian capital markets, marking a significant innovation in capital-raising for a federal credit union. This approach supports our current financial needs and positions us for future growth opportunities.

We continued to demonstrate our financial strength and resilience, which was corroborated when we maintained our long-term and short-term credit ratings of BBB (high) and R1 (low) from the global credit rating agency, DBRS Morningstar.

We were also recognized as one of Deloitte Canada’s Best Managed Companies, marking the 21st year we’ve made this list and the 14th year as a member of the award program’s Platinum Club.

Making membership meaningful

At Coast Capital, we put members at the centre of everything we do. We’re determined to deliver an exceptional member experience and implemented improvements in 2023 to better serve our members:

New Members

  • We supported new members and our communities through a limited-time offer of 20 per cent cashback on bills and a $150 donation to the Youth Futures Education Fund for every new member who joined Coast Capital. We also made several enhancements to our new member sign up platform, to make becoming a member easier.

New Products

  • Mastercard® issued by Collabria was introduced to provide members with enhanced benefits and an improved service experience like CardWise® Mobile app and CardWise® Online, allowing members to manage their credit card account online or through their smartphone.
  • The launch of the First Home Savings Account (FHSA) supported members on their journey to purchase their first home.

Money Chat

  • Our signature financial discovery tool continues to be our highest-rated Coast Capital experience with approximately 35,000 members receiving personalized advice from financial advisors and tangible steps to improve their financial health.

Digital Banking

  • The addition of new digital services and features to our Coast Mobile® Banking app and Coast Online® Banking makes it simple for members to open new accounts, access financial products and book appointments online.

Wealth Management

  • We enhanced the focus of our wealth management team to support our commercial members and those with more complex investment needs, resulting in more members receiving dedicated financial advisor help to achieve their financial goals.
  • In response to our members’ increasing interest in responsible investing, we hosted an educational farm-to-fork dinner series on sustainable investing.

Debt consolidation and borrowing support

  • Coast Capital’s first unsecured pre-approved loan campaign helped members reduce their monthly borrowing costs by consolidating external debt into fixed-term loans.
  • We also proactively contacted members with variable-rate mortgages impacted by rising interest rates to offer advice and help them manage their monthly payments.

Enhancing the employee experience

Our goal to build better futures includes our employees. We’re continually striving to deliver upon our promise of making sure employees feel connected and part of our purpose and culture. We empower them to work where they’re most effective while meeting the priorities of members and our organization. Most importantly, we want them to feel cared for by offering a broad range of benefits and resources.

We provide our employees with living wage employment; an inclusive workplace with equity, diversity and inclusion practices and policies; a volunteer program that helps employees champion what’s important to them; career and leadership development; recognition and awards programs; and a comprehensive well-being program to support physical and mental wellness. We also offer flexible work options to support our employees in balancing work and life.

To support our employees through challenging economic times, we provided an employee financial well-being bonus in 2023 to help relieve some financial pressures.

As a reflection of our commitment to employees, we are proud of our standing as a Hall of Fame winner of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures.

We’re excited for the purpose journey ahead

I’m grateful to our employees who bring incredible ideas, innovations, and energy to the work we do. I’m also grateful to our Board of Directors, our Executive Committee, and our Senior Leadership team who put members at the centre of their every discussion and decision. We’ve accomplished a lot together and we have many more exciting opportunities ahead in 2024.

Finally, I want to thank our members who choose to partner with us every day. On behalf of everyone at Coast Capital, we look forward to continuing to serve you as we find ways to unlock greater financial opportunities, grow incomes and build better futures together.

 

Calvin MacInnis,
President & CEO