3/25/2020

As a credit union, Southeast Michigan State Employees is able to remain open for business during the "Stay Safe, Stay at Home" Executive Order issued by Governor Whitmer as a "critical infrastructure sector".  Additionally, we are operating under the recent Essential Buisness mandate issued by Oakland County promoting social distancing and daily screening of our employees.  

The numbers of people infected and dying from this virus are growing at an alarming rate.  We all need to do our part to put this behind us.  Southeast Michigan State Employees are truly delighted to be here to take care of your needs.  It is one of our main priorities listed below.  However, we do ask that you think ahead about your financial needs to minimize your vists and therefore limiting exposure risk to both yourself and our employees. 

Be safe everyone. 

Important notice about the impact of the Coronavirus on Southeast Michigan State Employees Federal Credit Union.

The Coronavirus pandemic is having a tremendous impact on the ability of your credit union to operate normally.

Our two main priorities are to provide for the health and safety of our staff and members, while continuing to provide financial service to our members. At this point our lobby is open for business with full lobby service, however we are working with a limited staff. Our ability to continue this depends both on the continued health of our employees and any edicts of our federal, state or local governments.

To assist us in this, we request that if you are knowingly exposed to the Coronavirus or if you are not feeling well, that you do not come into the credit union to avoid infecting staff or other members. If you believe you are at risk for infection, you should self-quarantine until you are medically clear or at least fourteen days have passed. We will expect the same from our staff.

As a small institution with limited resources, we are not equipped to work from home, so if we are forced to close the business, it is likely we will not be able to answer the phone calls. In this event, we ask your patience until we are able to reopen.

We do intend that all of our remote services will continue to operate normally if we were forced to close. This includes Smart Teller (telephone banking), Smart Branch (computer banking), Mobiliti (our mobile phone app), debit cards, credit cards, checking, and electronic debits and credits.

Because of the risk that we may be unable to open normally at some point during this crisis, we recommend the following strategies for you.

• Exercise caution in making on-line purchases during this period of time. Because of production and shipping delays, especially on international purchases, allow additional time to receive items before disputing transactions. Worldwide there are disruptions in commerce, and this should be considered normal, for the time being.
• Use our home banking service to monitor account activity. This is a free service, whereas making inquiries at an ATM does come at a cost. You can self-enroll for home banking at smsefcu.com by clicking on the image of the coffee cup. Monitoring your account on-line can help catch early if an account is compromised in any way.
• If fraudulent activity does occur to your account, file the dispute with us as soon as possible. Once we are able to verify the fraud, we will credit your account and any fees incurred as a result of the fraud.
• Finally, we will handle all disputes to the best of our ability. If, in the event the credit union is forced to close, we are unable to process a dispute on a timely basis, we will process it as soon as we are able. If a dispute is denied solely on the basis that it was filed untimely, and it was filed untimely due to the credit union’s inability to open, the credit union will bear the loss, not you.

We are committed to doing everything in our power to continue to provide service. At this point, nobody on our staff is showing symptoms of the virus, but we will continue to monitor the situation carefully.

Martin Hansen - CEO