Community First, since 1959, has been Doing Good!
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Community First Debuts Nation’s First Bilingual Banking Bot
“Maggie,” automatically knows when you’re using Spanish
Community First Credit Union has beat the big banks by launching the first bilingual banking bot in the U.S. “Maggie,” powered by artificial intelligence, has been helping Community First Members since April of 2020 by making account transfers and payments, checking balances, and answering debit card issues, 24/7. Now, Maggie can understand, answer and carry out commands in Spanish.
“In our five-county footprint, a significant portion of our Members tell us they are more confident when banking in Spanish,” said Scott Johnson, CEO of Community First. If one of Community First’s Members queries Maggie in Spanish, the banking bot instantaneously uses Spanish during the remainder of the transaction or chat session. There is no need for a fork-in-the-road to indicate if you want an English or Spanish language experience; Maggie ascertains the language you’re using based on your initial question or directive.
Since the announcement of Maggie's bilingualism in October, a question in Spanish (which translates to, “What is Your Routing Number?”) was the third-most asked question of the month. “So we know Members are already tapping into Maggie’s Spanish-language abilities,” commented Johnson.
In addition to Spanish-speaking Maggie, Community First is the only Redwood Empire-based financial institution with a complete version of its website available in Spanish. It also remains the only local bank or credit union with any banking bot powered by artificial intelligence.
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2021-22 Teachers of the Year
In Lake + Sonoma Counties
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Community First was founded by LOCAL teachers in 1959. Since then, we have never forgotten our roots.
We offer special loans to intern teachers to fast-track them into the education profession (and help combat our area-wide teacher shortage). Additionally, we offer scholarships to LOCAL graduating high school seniors, sponsor teacher-of-the-year awards in four of the five counties we serve, and conduct dozens of in-class financial literacy presentations every year.
Last month, Community First had the honor of presenting the Sonoma County teacher of the year award to Danielle Kennedy (pictured above), a special education teacher at La Tercera Elementary School in Petaluma. We also honored Lake County teacher of the year, Michelle Mackey (pictured below), a sixth-grade teacher at Minnie Cannon Elementary School in Middletown.
Community First provided no-strings-attached cash awards to each of these outstanding teachers. They represent the very best in their profession.
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CFCU, a full-service financial institution
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Community First is a not-for-profit cooperative financial institution. That means we put people before anything else. We generally have higher deposit rates and lower lending rates. It means our Members get the biggest bang for their bucks in all their banking needs.
In other words, we provide all the deposit and loan products you need, but we still offer the kind of personal service the banks gave up long ago as unprofitable.
We’re also very tech-savvy. Community First was the first locally based bank or credit union to offer a mobile app, first with contactless cards, first with a complete Spanish-language website, and first with a 24/7 bilingual banking bot – Maggie. Moreover, because financial co-ops cooperate with each other, Community First Members have free access to 34,400 ATMs nationwide. That’s nearly three times more ATMs than the biggest U.S. banks can offer.
Full service? Fully spot on!
Find out more about the services your LOCAL credit union offers by visiting comfirstcu.org.
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Is it too early to wish you “happy holidays?” Perhaps. Is it too early to let you know of our holiday schedule? Not at all.
Although many of the end-of-the-year holidays fall on a weekend this year, there are still a few days in which we’ll be closed.
Below is Holiday Schedule:
Veterans Day – CLOSED – Thursday, November 11
Thanksgiving – CLOSED – Thursday, November 25
Christmas Eve – OPEN from 9a to 12p – Friday, December 24
Christmas Day – CLOSED – Saturday, December 25
New Year’s Eve – OPEN – Friday, December 31
New Year’s Day – CLOSED – Saturday, January 1
Our branches will be dark, but bank-bot Maggie, our mobile app, online banking, and our nationwide networks of 34,000+ ATMs will remain available.
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707-546-6000
PO Box 6004,
Santa Rosa, CA 95406
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