Rebranding your credit union: Is the juice worth the squeeze?

The credit union landscape has changed substantially over the last eighty-plus years. Once, tens of thousands of credit unions stood, each serving a unique and specific population within their communities. As the industry has consolidated, those SEG-based credit unions became multi-SEG (to the chagrin of bankers).

With the quick passage of the Credit Union Membership Access Act in 1998 to counteract the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier that year, credit unions now had it signed into law that their field of membership (FOM) could allow for multiple common bonds. Now, only a couple thousand remain.

But this is not an article about mergers and consolidation. Rather, it is about the subsequent wave of rebranding that has arisen as a result of expanding fields of membership and credit unions moving from SEG-based charters to more inclusive community charters. After all, if your credit union is named after a local business or organization, how will those unaffiliated know they too can benefit?

Reasons to entertain a branding change

Sometimes changing the credit union’s name is a matter of more accurately reflecting an expanded charter. Among the examples you will read below is that of Bluestone Federal Credit Union, formerly known as Sioux Empire FCU. After an expansion of their FOM to include far more counties, they felt the prior name might create confusion in that expanded territory.

 

continue reading »