... how did that happen?
How did SECU become such a large credit union?
With over 2.7 million members and @$50 billion in assets, SECU is the second largest credit union in the U.S. How did that happen? The answer is a focus on families.
While most credit unions started out as employee-benefit, borrowing and savings clubs, some adjustments were quickly adopted in terms of membership. Instead of being required to close their accounts when they left employment, members such as retirees or workers who became disabled sought to retain their accounts. Sounded reasonable and credit unions nationwide moved to a "once a member, always a member" format. Even if you left employment with the "sponsoring company", you were permitted to retain your accounts and equal membership rights.
The second significant change was permission for family members to join with equal membership rights. Supporting the families of employees also seemed to make great sense.
You will note from past comments, there were several questions asking what percentage of SECU members are currently state and public school employees? That could be anybody's guess. There are currently @ 60,000 active state employees and perhaps @125,000 active public school employees, with @335,000 retirees. Hard to get to 2.7 million members from that base!
You might be surprised to learn that only @25% of SECU members are active or retired state and public school employees. It has been that way for decades. The math on that guess is easy. The "typical North Carolina household" used to be husband, wife, two kids. When all became full-fledged SECU members, three out of four (75%) were not and never were employees of the state.
Serving members and their families well in North Carolina has been the winning "formula" for SECU in the past.
The SECU Board has declared a need to move away from that formula. As an SECU member-owner, do you understand what is in store with that new direction, new culture (the "new/new")?
... don't you think you should?
