Library branch long overdue

Facility is a foundation within the community.

December 19, 2018 by Ron Jooss, CU Magazine

KCT CU’s branch in the Gail Borden Public Library saved the CU the cost of building a new branch. “A library is a place where there already are people,” says CEO Mike Lee.

One Illinois credit union has opened a branch in a local library as a touchpoint to serve the community and grow its membership.

Five years ago, when Mike Lee took over as CEO of Kane County Teachers Credit Union in Elgin, Ill., he had a branch on a dead-end street and another in a historic building that wasn’t readily visible.

Still another branch was a block off a major thoroughfare. And with the name “Kane County Teachers Credit Union” over the door, “people thought you had to be a teacher or part of a union to join,” Lee says.

He rebranded the $231 million asset institution as KCT Credit Union and partnered with the Gail Borden Public Library—one of its select employee groups—to open a branch in downtown Elgin.