CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas–Gulf Coast Federal Credit Union said it has become the first credit union to convert from a community charter to a multiple common bond charter in order to obtain a larger, yet entirely inclusive community by adding multiple underserved areas.
According to the credit union and CUCollaborate, which assisted in the charter change, the Southern Texas market has seen extensive growth during CEO Jeremy Garza’s 18 years with the credit union, but was unable to capitalize on the growth with its community charter-based field of membership population at just 375,000.
“In the last four years, we had a few multibillion-dollar credit unions come into this area. We needed to see how we could expand our service area,” Garza said in a released statement.
According to CUCollaborate, the credit union’s community charter was not going to allow the $267-million credit union to achieve the growth Garza and the board felt it needed to succeed long term.
According to Garza, CUCollaborate was able to package the FOM paperwork and other tasks in order to get the new FOM approved.
Much Larger Area
In addition, Garza said, the company also helped it to identify a much larger area than Gulf Coast was originally considering. The credit union might have been able to add a couple other counties, but CUCollaborate was able to get Gulf Coast FCU all of that, plus, by converting from community charter to a multiple common bond charter, added a few groups and three underserved areas, according to the credit union.
“When credit unions begin using their fields of membership as a strategic tool, we can reach more members in need of financial services and collaboratively fulfill the people-helping-people philosophy,” said CUCollaborate Founder/CEO Sam Brownell.