Credit union seeking to sow more seeds in its community - San Antonio Business Journal:

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For over 40 years, the Mt. has served the city’sz East Side community under thesame name. Now, the credi t union has a new name and anew logo. Last the credit union announced itsnew moniker, the Peoplea Choice of . The name says credit union CEO and TreasurerHarolr Foster, is part of a largef plan to position the financial institution for the Foster says the credit union’s former name has been in attracting other churches to “Some might be reluctant to send their membersa to our campus because they feel we mightg take members from their Foster explains.
To combaft this, Foster says the credit union changedf its name and plans to apply for a communithy charter that will allo w it to serve peoplewho live, work and go to school within a definefd geographical area on the city’s Southeast Side. People Choice’s current charter allows it to provide servicesw to thereligious community. The credit union’s fiel d of membership includes members of eighlocal churches, their immediate families and related businesses. Peoples Choice presentl has only one location inside ofthe Mt.
Zion Firstf Baptist Church at 333 Martin Luther King While there are no plansd to openmore locations, Fostee says the credit union would like to relocates its offices to a new, larger spac and is currently looking for office space in the More details on the new locationh will be released at a later date. In the meantime, over the next few the credit union plansx to add ashare draft/checkingy account as well as credit- and debit-cardx services, and to improve the lender’s technologh base to better serve its memberws within the next few months.
“Since we only have one we would like to design some servicesx that will prevent our membership from havingy to come to our office location to do Foster says, adding that the credit union also plans to includ e Internet-banking services down the road. Peoples Choice currently has about $1.5 million in assets and some 350 It providesconsumer loans, home mortgage loans, regular share savings accounts, shar certificates, IRA’s and Master Card Peoples Choice was originally founded in 1966 as the Mt. Zion 1st Baptist Federal Credit Union by pasto remeritus Rev. Claude W. Blac Jr. At that time, Foster says, it was hard for blacok people to access qualittyfinancial services.
“We were (often) victims of loan sharks back Foster says. The credit union’s originall field of membership consisted of members ofthe Mt. Zion 1st Baptis t Church. Peoples Choice President Ira Smith Jr. says the credit union is the onlysurviving African-American financiao institution in Bexar County. Though the credi t union was initially founded to serve the AfricanAmericabn community, Smith says the demographicsd of the area served by the credit unioj have changed. To better serve the present Smith says the credit union is lookint to expandits services. “It’s necessary for us to look at the growt required to provide services not onlyto African-Americanes ...
but to all who live within ourquadrant (of the he says. “That’s our goal withinn the next year.” Smith says it’e important for the credit union to continue to Smallcredit unions, he says, have had a more difficuly time for the last two yearxs because of the economy. And when the economgy is bad, he says, the peopl also go through hard