LAC Spotlight: Meet Adam Layne!
Are you familiar with Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union? You may have seen their logo at community events and activities, their purple gear a perfect Minnesota pairing from Vikings games days to Prince functions. But do you know much about Affinity Plus and its origins? Affinity Plus goes way back! The local credit union was started during the Great Depression by a group of Minnesota state employees who wanted more from their financial institution. Rather than trying to get what they wanted out of the traditional banks they felt were failing them, they formed a credit union where the customers weren’t only consumers, but members who all had an equal part in the organization’s well-being and operations. The mission lives on in the work they are doing locally - and in roles like Adam Layne’s.
I will admit having a bit of a bias for Affinity Plus, as they are our family's chosen financial institution. My father-in-law volunteered on the board for many years starting with his time working for the state, and shared many stories about his time there. Knowing some of the history already, I was excited to hear about what’s in the store for the future and what Adam has been up to.
Adam, can you tell me a little bit about your role at Affinity Plus?
My role is the Community Engagement and Business Development Manager at Affinity Plus. My job is twofold, with two overlapping objectives: empower our communities, and grow our credit union. In my role, I manage many of our charitable partnerships and promotions and support our Foundation and its board of directors. I also support local branch marketing initiatives throughout the state to raise awareness of Affinity Plus. One of the things that’s great about being in this role and with Affinity Plus is that I run into our members everywhere, and it’s a fun way to start a conversation. I come into contact with people who are members and wear their membership with Affinity Plus as a badge of honor.
One of the pieces I value the most is the opportunity to develop partnerships throughout the state, and I’m a big believer in the value of partnership. I think that growing the credit union and supporting our community are things that can happen simultaneously. They are both related goals. Our partners are doing great work throughout the state and in so many ways they are the face of the community, working on the front lines.
What Affinity Plus brings to the table is the opportunity to pair our resources to those organizations and spaces. That involves charitable giving, but also involves expanding access to banking, especially to folks that are tepid about doing business with a traditional banking institution. Many people have been ostracized by the traditional process, so we are working to nurture partnerships and build community connections that can’t be done just through taking out a billboard advertisement. We try to connect in areas where there is the most need. For example, I oversee a steering committee here at Affinity Plus that’s specifically focused on driving memberships from our most vulnerable communities, to get them banking services that aren’t extractive and help them meet their individual goals.
We lead with a people first mindset.
Because we’re a low-income designated credit union, that means more than 50% of our members live in low income areas. We want to represent those folks and make sure we’re serving them, and make sure we’re expanding who we are accessible to.
How do you measure that, and as you work towards closing that gap, are you seeing those figures change?
One way we measure this is via banking accessibility. How many people are banked or underbanked? During the pandemic we saw a closure of this gap, because a lot of the stimulus checks that went out had to be done by direct deposit. Where we’re seeing a big gap is in the underbanked category, folks that rely more on things like payday loan services, check cashing locations and those types of businesses. We also hear from our community partners that predatory auto lending is one of the biggest factors impacting low-income families.
While the number of folks who are not banked overall has shrunk, there’s still a massive amount of people that are using financial services that are not cost effective and helping them meet their long-term goals. We need to do that outreach and we need to be available to our communities that allow them access to the things that will improve their lives.
One other thing we pride ourselves on is limiting fees. There was a recent article about the news around this - CFPB finalizes rule limiting overdraft fees - The Washington Post. That’s fantastic news, but I should note that Affinity Plus was making those efforts years ago! We reduced fees overall, including eliminating NSF fees and reducing overdraft and courtesy pay fees in 2022. What we found when we did that, it cost us a lot of money as an institution, but it put money back in the hands of our members (and our most vulnerable members, specifically.) We see that as a big win.
While the unbanked gap has closed quite a bit, the underbanked gap needs more work and is critical to how we can make an impact moving forward. The fees example is just one example. I think it will also drive more membership growth - because doing the right thing pays off.
I remember my father-in-law telling me about past financial crises, and how Affinity Plus managed them. Could you talk a little bit more about that, and how the practices of the Credit Union played out in those moments?
The vast majority of our money comes from our deposits, or our loans and other products. It’s not big investment banking, it’s not large-scale commercial lending. More than 50% of our members are considered low-income, which speaks to the average size of member deposits we have at any given time. My point being is that we intentionally minimize those practices that could put the health of our membership at risk, we treat that very carefully. During the most recent bank failures, Affinity Plus maintained a healthy and strong position because we remained focused on our core goal of serving our members’ best interests.
We also have a specific group of individuals - member consultants and certified financial coaches - who work with members to build budgets, consolidate debt, and curb unnecessary spending. It just goes back to our mission and purpose, that we want to build a meaningful banking relationship with you. We’re not trying to nickel and dime you. Certainly loans are a part of our business, but it’s about doing that responsibly so people are set up to succeed, not fail. Otherwise people will lose trust. We like to say that ”banking is what we do, but people is who we are.”
What was the pathway that led you to this work?
I’ve worked at both nonprofit and for-profit settings. I found the nonprofit sector lacked the resources, but the for profit sector lacked the will. When I found myself at a not-for-profit credit union it felt like the best of both worlds: the will to make things happen paired with the resources to do so. I feel like I’ve landed in maybe the perfect place for me, with the resources to do good work, and leadership supporting me.
I think that the business development side and the community engagement side of my role work hand in hand. As a community-based credit union, we’re empowered to go out and lead in communities and support the folks who need us most.
What first connected you to LISC?
I joined the Local Advisory Committee (LAC) this past spring, as we rolled out a pilot project we had been working on with LISC. I remember seeing Kate Speed speak on a panel and was just fascinated by the work LISC was doing. We had some conversations about opportunities to get Affinity Plus involved, which opened the door to me asking Kate a bit more about the Financial Opportunity Center ™ program.
The past year we launched a pilot program with Build Wealth Minnesota around a credit builder loan and matched savings opportunity, and to do that we leveraged our existing credit builder loan. The Affinity Plus Foundation provided matching funds for those in the pilot program, and participants (referrals from Build Wealth Minnesota) are in the process of building their credit and savings over the course of the next year. The pilot, which we began talking about in 2023, was rolled out in 2024. We just met for a 6-month review to review the effectiveness of the pilot. Our primary goals are:
After the pilot is over, we want to look at ways we can improve it, make it better. If it’s working, one of our goals is to scale it. The initial results were exciting! We saw that of the people referred to us, more than half were using other Affinity Plus products such as free credit monitoring tools, debit cards and no fee checking accounts. And more than half of the participants had already seen their credit improve by 35 points on average. It’s not just a credit improvement, but it’s building that strong banking relationship.
Where we plan to go next involves the other things we were seeing. How we can help folks with upside-down auto loans, debt consolidation, etc. Folks that are rebuilding and fixing their credit, with the ultimate goal of buying a home.
We try to maintain a steady presence in the community and also to go where we are most needed. One of the things we’ve done in the past 2 years is we opened a branch in the Midway area of St. Paul. We’re the only credit union that operates in the Midway currently. We moved into that area knowing there's an overall lack of resources for this community right now. We want to be a part of the solution. It’s an area we’re proud to be in.
We also opened a branch in Mahnomen, MN on the White Earth reservation, another underserved area. That continues to be something we look at as we think about expansion. Where are the critical needs and what are the existing needs, and how can we better address them. We are also working to attract new talent to Affinity, and grow our employee base with folks that are from the communities we represent.
What is something that’s exciting to you about the future- for LISC, Affinity, or both?
One thing that excites me is the partnership between LISC and LISC’s partners, and what we can do together - like the credit builder pilot program we rolled out earlier this year. That’s something that LISC approached us about supporting, and it was a need unmet in the community. We just literally had a six month check in about it this past Friday. The power of not only improving participants’ credit but also their savings, and improving their relationship with a financial institution. Now, how do we look proactively at the other things we can be doing? I’m also excited to build relationships with more community organizations and find meaningful ways for Affinity Plus to impact the lives of their clients. We can help the most vulnerable communities we have while also growing the Credit Union. I think that’s truly possible and what excites me about LISC is bringing those ideas and opportunities forward. Like, “Hey, be a part of the solution.”
One of the things I think is important and powerful is that we simply don’t know everything, We don’t know all the challenges our community is facing. If we stop for a second and LISTEN to what the community is saying, together we can come up with some bold strategies to tackle some of those problems. That’s the work done in the trenches. As simple as it is, that the credit builder and match savings pilot was a huge deal. I’m excited about expanding it and offering it to hundreds more throughout the Twin Cities and beyond, and seeing how this impacts the state as a whole.
As we go into the next moment of transition, what are things we should be mindful of and pay attention to?
The first thing that comes to mind is- how important it is to listen to the community, and to listen to what the community is saying. Make sure that is first and foremost in mind in the direction that we go as LISC. The community partners and the people that we support will tell us what we need, and I want us to be open to hearing that, and to listening to what they say, and prioritizing what we do to meet those needs that they are articulating.
I think it’s also listening for trends, too. What are the big boulders and are we tackling those effectively? How are we adapting, recognizing, and focusing our resources? It’s important to listen, but also be smart and evaluate the trends and themes.
I was just thinking about this recently - how can I provide more value to the LAC, and how you all can use me as well. There’s an opportunity to leverage and elevate the story of LISC within the credit union community, and to raise awareness of the work being done at LISC, which is awesome.
This is for me but also others on the LAC, how can we help elevate LISC’s voice and share that story through the people and connections we have. There’s an opportunity for all of us around the table to do that. That’s something that’s been fascinating for me as one of the newer LAC members. I’ve been learning about the brick and mortar pieces, which is how I came to know LISC. But there’s such a wide swath of work you support beyond the brick and mortar that’s really fascinating. I want to help uplift that, too.