What is a credit union?
Credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives, serving members who share something in common: employment, association membership, or residence in a particular geographic area. As not-for-profit cooperatives, credit unions generally offer more attractive savings and loan rates, and low or no fees. Surveys consistently rank credit unions first among financial institutions in consumer satisfaction.

Philosophy and Structure
Credit unions are democratically owned and controlled institutions, based on "people helping people" principles. Credit union boards of directors are elected by members; each member has an equal vote, regardless of how much he or she has on deposit. Only members may serve as directors, and directors serve without remuneration. Volunteers are an important credit union resource. Presently, more than 100,500 Americans volunteer for their credit unions, serving as board members, committee members or providing other assistance. In Indiana, approximately 2,400 individuals serve as a volunteer for their credit union in some capacity. Finally, credit unions have no outside stockholders, so after reserves are set aside, earnings are returned to members in the form of dividends on savings, lower loan rates or additional services.

Membership Facts
More than 90 million Americans are credit union members. 2.2 million Hoosiers are members of Indiana’s 207credit unions.
Assets held in Indiana credit unions: $16.1 billion
Loans made by Indiana credit unions: $11.3 billion
Figures current as of 09/30/07

Find a credit union to join
Visit www.findacreditunion.com and enter basic information to match your needs with a credit union you may be eligible to join.

How many credit unions?
In Indiana there are 164 federal credit unions and 45 state-chartered credit unions.

Regulation and supervision
Federally chartered credit unions are regulated by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), an independent agency. NCUA's three board members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. State-chartered credit unions are regulated by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions (DFI). No taxpayer money is used for regulating and overseeing credit unions, as all activities of NCUA and the DFI are funded by credit unions.

Traditional credit union services
Credit unions were created to enable people to pool their financial resources to help themselves and others. While savings and lending products are still the foundation of credit unions’ product lines, in response to members’ growing financial services needs, credit unions’ product menu has expanded over the years to include a wide variety of low-cost, high quality financial services. Each credit union offers the services that are the most important to its own members.

A unique alliance: shared branching
Arguably, nothing represents the cooperative spirit of credit unions like the shared branching program. The concept is simple: credit unions pool resources to serve one another’s members. In Indiana, the League manages 9 stand-alone service centers throughout the state where members from any participating credit union can come in and transact business just as if they were in the lobby of their own credit union. This keeps individual credit unions from having to maintain additional branch offices and offers a convenience to credit union members. Indiana’s locations are among more than 2,900 locations that are available nationwide to shared branch participants. The number of national locations continues to increase about 30 percent annually. In addition to the stand-alone service centers, there are 145 “outlets” located in Indiana. These are offices of one credit union that are conveniently located that operate just like a stand-alone service center, allowing members from any participating credit union to come in and transact business.

64 credit unions participate in Indiana’s shared branch program. Transaction volume at service centers and outlets is more than one-half million per month.

Financial Literacy
For youth: Credit unions in Indiana take creative approaches to educating young Hoosiers about financial issues. For example, a Central Indiana elementary school has an on-site credit union, staffed by fourth-graders, which is open one day each week. In Northern Indiana, a credit union actively markets small loans at a high school, taking the opportunity to teach students about the responsibilities associated with borrowing and the need for a clean credit history.

In other communities, at the high school level, credit union staff members volunteer to teach curriculum they’ve developed themselves or curriculum provided by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE, pronounce acronym: NEE-FEE) in classrooms around the state. Credit unions have a national partnership with NEFE, an organization that provides a multi-part program that includes curriculum on savings, lending, balancing a checkbook, an introduction to the stock market, how to buy insurance and other topics that are important foundation-builders to improve financial literacy. The NEFE program is typically offered in the “Life Skills” department in participating high schools and gets high marks from teachers and students alike. The books and instructor materials are entirely FREE to schools wishing to participate. School staff or credit union staff can present the program—it is entirely up to the participating schools.

For adults: Free seminars are the most common and popular way for credit unions to share various pieces of financial information with members. Presented by a combination of credit union personnel and community experts, the sessions are part of the foundation of financial literacy education for credit union members around the state. Recent topics at credit unions around Indiana have been

• Identity Theft – Precautions to Take
• Basic Budgeting
• IRAs and Tax Planning
• On Your Own: Managing Your Finances While You are at College
• New Home Buying
• Kids and Money

And of course, most credit unions publish monthly or quarterly newsletters and host Web sites that contain a variety of consumer information.

Meeting the needs of the Hispanic community
Many Hoosier credit unions are reaching out to the Hispanic members of their communities. Translating printed materials and advertising into Spanish, hiring bilingual staff members, and purchasing bilingual ATMs are just a few of the ways credit unions are welcoming this growing population. In several communities, bilingual staff members visit area employers to sign up new credit union members, going over documents in Spanish.

Community relations
Indiana credit unions collectively support Riley Hospital for Children, the only hospital in the state associated with the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN). Indiana credit unions have been involved in Credit Unions for Kids for nine years and have collectively contributed approximately $90,000 to the hospital in each of the last three years. Credit unions have been recognized among the leading fundraisers for CMN nationwide. By participating collectively we are able to employ our “People Helping People” philosophy and contribute in a meaningful way that none of the credit unions could do individually.

Community relations projects in credit union communities are too numerous to list here. Charity organizations, school groups, children’s homes, eldercare facilities, unwed mothers, humane societies, literacy programs, youth sports events, neighborhood revitalization efforts and shelters of all kinds have been the recipients of the generosity of Indiana’s credit unions.

The Indiana Credit Union Foundation is a charitable arm of the Indiana Credit Union League, using contributions from individuals, credit unions and other organizations to fund projects, which benefit Hoosier credit unions. These include scholarships and grants, credit union development and other programs as approved by its board of directors including financial literacy, community education programs and disaster relief.