A. Scott MacKnight, CEO/President 

It is hard to believe we are celebrating a new year already! This time last year, the economists were predicting a recession in the first quarter, rates would decrease in 2023, and inflation would be at 2% by the end of the year. Well, they were wrong in all cases. They are still discussing the possibility of a recession, rates might decrease next year, and inflation will decrease but not to 2%. Unfortunately, they forgot to calculate in the debacle and failure of a couple of fintech banks, supporting two conflicts, nationwide liquidity restraints, and a whole lot of uncertainty on national and global levels.

Despite all this chaos, I continue to be amazed by the Credit Union’s staff in perseverance and dedication to serve our members within New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Triangle employees are dedicated to their different roles so we can succeed in our credit union’s mission. For that, I am so proud of our accomplishments, like investing in new technology and products to stay relevant for the next several decades and strategizing to minimize our costs. This was not easy in 2023, but we succeeded.

Our focus in 2024 will be to assist our members with financial goals, whether that is in the form of competitive lending rates and wealth building, fraud prevention and financial literacy. In addition, we will increase our Interactive Teller Machine (ITM) fleet, introduce a new business banking platform, and increase the number of business and consumer checking accounts so we encourage our members to refer family and friends to Triangle. We certainly have a busy year ahead!

On behalf of all our staff, may you and yours have a prosperous New Year!

The full issue of the Winter Money Talk Newsletter is available here.