Greg Hansen, the chief credit officer at Numerica Credit Union, has retired after nearly 16 years at the Spokane Valley-based financial institution.

The Journal sat down with Hansen to discuss how he wound up in the banking industry, the role he played in launching a cannabis-banking program, and the trends he expects will develop in the financial sector moving forward.

At what point in your life did you know you were interested in a career in banking?

 I think pretty early. I got a marketing degree from Western Washington University, and I thought, OK, I'm gonna go into marketing. And you know, my first real job was a bank examiner job, and I liked it. I liked the thought of, OK, this entity is making loans to this business, and we looked at it a little more from a critical eye. We're seeing if they're making good or bad loans and doing all the right things.

They have to do a good job in really understanding that business, understanding the character of the owners, understanding the industry, all these things. And that was just so interesting to me.

And since that time, I thought that is just a really cool job. I get to lend money to companies. I get to meet these business owners; almost form partnerships because these are five-, 10-year loans. You are partnered with those businesses for that period of time.

When I did well, or my department did well, it was good for my employer. I thought that was really great. It helps the company I work for, and when we're doing that, it helps those businesses. It helps the economic development of the communities those businesses are in. It helps employ people.

So, it just had a lot of great things that I loved about it.

How would you say the banking industry has changed over the years?

 It's changed hugely. I look at the change in technology and the expansion of competition. You know, 20 years ago you didn't have as much technology. So much was done manually. You make a loan, you take deposits, you move money around, and it was pretty basic. 

The enhancements in technology are great for consumers and businesses. It's so much easier to do things, but it's also opened the door for a lot of competition.

We see fintechs, we see a lot of nontraditional bank-type entities offer banking products, and they're able to do it because we have new platforms that we can move money so easily. We have such great digital platforms across the banking industry.

And now, you're seeing entities like Walmart and Amazon, you know, they're in banking basically. They're able to move money around, offer loans. But it's really that advancement in technology that has changed everything.

And you just see with that competition you never dreamed about 15, 20 years ago.

One of your colleagues mentioned that you oversaw the launch of Numerica's cannabis-banking program. Could you tell me a little bit about that experience?

 I would be unfair if I didn’t mention Lynn Ciani's role in that. Lynn Ciani, when we rolled that out, she was our chief legal counsel.

Lynn really had the idea, and then it was a matter of, OK, how do we put this in place? We just thought it made the community safer by having a place for those cannabis processors, producers, retailers to put their money. Otherwise, they have loads of cash sitting in their businesses and we didn't think that was a good thing for our community.

As we looked at what we needed to do, my department was the area that owned it.

It was a pretty amazing experience, just going through everything we had to go through to satisfy what the Washington Department of Financial Institutions required for cannabis banking. Balancing that with knowing that it's still a federal offense and there were certain risks we were taking by doing this.

Initially, we just focused on deposits. Let's get that money off the street. And we had some really good people as a part of that core group that rolled it out, that looked at the regulatory aspect.

How do we actually get money delivered from these businesses into the branches? Where do we store this cash? What are all the processes we have to put in to make sure it's safe? That's something I'm really proud of that we did.

I was at a talk with the DFI, they did an event, it was probably seven years ago. And the head of the DFI said, “If any of you credit unions are thinking about getting into (cannabis), you have to do it like Numerica did. They laid out everything as it should be.”

That was a good feeling. And today, I believe our market share in Eastern Washington is 85%, 90%, because we do a really good job at taking care of those members and we are fair in what we charge them.

We know those members really well. If things go sideways, we are there to help them out. It's a really good relationship and it's something that I'm really proud Numerica did.

Do you expect to see any new trends develop in the banking industry in the coming years, specifically in the Inland Northwest?

 It's hard to predict the future.

Three years ago, nobody predicted the impact that AI would have. So that part is hard to say. I think we'll see changes in technology. I think as consumer sentiment and consumer demands change, that's gonna drive change in our industry.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some consolidation, and that's not always good.

I think it's nice that consumers and business owners have options and I would like those options to include credit unions and community banks, and not just the larger national banks and large national companies.

I think consumers and business owners benefit by having those options and benefit by having a local advocate for what they want.

And so, I wouldn't be surprised if we see consolidation. I hope not too much, because, certainly in our world, the community benefits by having an STCU here, or a Numerica here, or a Canopy Credit Union.

It benefits by having a State Bank Northwest, a RiverBank. If those banks go away and those credit unions go away, I think consumers and business owners may not get the benefit that they get today by working with local institutions.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.