PHOENIX — Desert Schools Federal Credit Union is tweaking its name.
The credit union said effective Jan. 1 it will operate as Desert Financial Credit Union and is making the change because more than half of the residents in its market area thought it was open only to educators, its original FOM.
“We have served people from all professions for almost 20 years,” CEO Jeff Meshey said in a statement. “Some people even think we’re a school. We’re just replacing ‘schools’ with a word that better represents who we are as a financial institution.
“We believe that this change will create an opportunity for growth for our credit union,” Meshey added in the statement. “Because of this growth, we’ll be able to expand our community giving, advance our existing technology offerings and increase the benefits available to you.”
Desert Financial said the new name was chosen from a list of hundreds of names by members, possible members, focus groups and market research.
The $4.2-billion Desert Schools has 319,000 members.