In terms of starting a new credit union, there are some metrics around what kind of a deposit level might be required to operate a separate financial institution, and those thresholds are growing higher all the time. Do you have a commitment of a local deposit base that would place funds on deposit? Can you generate enough income off that to build capital that creates a sound and safe financial institution? Often the answer to a declining community is to have a branch of another credit union, a credit union with sufficient scale to maintain those operations.
That said, even in our larger organizations that have services in the declining communities, it really comes down to branch traffic and the kinds of access points that warrant having people physically on staff at the site and having the building and the location.
Another issue is that you can bring staff down to a low enough level that it actually starts to jeopardize the safety of the people in these operations from other elements. An example is having a single teller on service for a period of time. There are some thresholds that go into the consideration. Also, can that community be conveniently served from a neighbouring community on more of a part-time basis?