What we are
A credit union is a cooperative financial institution, owned and controlled by the people who use its services. These people are members. Credit unions serve groups that share something in common, such as where they work, live, or go to church. Credit unions are not-for-profit, and exist to provide a safe, convenient place for members to save money and to get loans at reasonable rates.

Credit unions, like other financial institutions, are closely regulated. And they operate in a very prudent manner.

What makes a credit union different from a bank or savings & loan? Like credit unions, these financial institutions accept deposits and make loans--but unlike credit unions, they are in business to make a profit. Banks and savings & loans are owned by groups of stockholders whose interests include earning a healthy return on their investments.

Why we exist
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act into law in 1934, the stated purpose was to "promote thrift and thwart usury." The legislators who wrote this Act realized that the only way to "thwart usury" was to remove the reason for usury: profit.

Credit unions exist for a simple reason: To provide people with the choice to receive their financial services from an institution that is NOT designed to extract profits from their transactions. Credit unions do measure return on investment and profits from products and reserve capital, but the purpose of those actions is to ensure that the credit union creates enough income and has the reserves needed to stay open and remain available to serve the members.

Why bankers don’t like us
Bankers don’t like credit unions for the same reason that we exist: Credit Unions provide people with the choice to receive their financial services from an institution that is NOT designed to extract profits from their transactions.

As long as credit unions remain in existence, people have a choice. They can walk away from for-profit banks and become a member of a credit union. Bankers would prefer that consumers did not have that choice.

Think of the current news stories you hear about the effect of for-profit banking on consumers. The disastrous mortgage issues currently impacting our entire economy were created by for-profit lenders. The "fee harvesting" credit card offerings that have pushed already-poor consumers into debt and destroyed credit ratings were perpetrated by for-profit lenders. If these abuses can exist in a business landscape that includes credit unions, how much worse would it be if that choice was gone?