What is a credit union?
Credit Unions are non-profit financial cooperatives, originally born in Europe over 100 years ago to help sustain local savings and lending during hard times. Groups of individuals with a common bond “banded together” to pool their funds, and then loaned them back out to fellow members expanding their financial horizons. In this way, both member and community benefited from the cooperative arrangement.
More relevant than ever, banking at your local credit union can be a great financial decision. While operations are periodically reviewed by independent auditors and government agencies (the latter of which allows deposits to be insured up to $250,000 by the National Credit Union Association), the members of each credit union really control their own destiny through a Board of Directors they elect annually from their membership. All Directors (and Board Committees) serve as loyal and selfless volunteer leaders who set policy and strategic direction without any compensation, and with the best interests of their fellow members at heart.
Credit union members are also the sole owners of their cooperative. There are no outside stockholders to please, so any profits – in excess of operational costs and required reserves – are generally returned to members as monthly dividends on deposits, or as special dividends as may be declared by their Board from time to time. The focus isn’t on Wall Street, but on Main Street.
All things considered, credit unions are quite simply a better way to bank.
History of Cherokee Strip Credit Union
In October 1933, a small group of Conoco employees in Ponca City organized the Conoco Employees (PC) Credit Union, at that time only the second credit union chartered in Oklahoma. We retained that name until July 1994, when it was changed to Cherokee Strip Credit Union (CSCU).