Boeing Credit Union Adds On-Line Loan Program

Boeing Employees' Credit Union has added an on-line loan feature to its PC home banking service.

The Tukwila, Wash.-based credit union has offered PC banking since 1994. Because Boeing Employees' has only two offices, it relies heavily on electronic banking channels to serve its 200,000 customers.

A user of the new service can apply for any of seven types of loans by filling out an application on a personal computer and routing the information electronically to Boeing. Boeing gives the applicant a decision on-line.

In tandem with the loan service, the bank unveiled a new version of its PC banking system, Online Access. The enhanced system operates in the Microsoft Windows environment.

"Basically, we're making a revolutionary form of banking even more cutting edge," said Patty Schwendeman, vice president of management information systems.

The addition of a loan function "makes the service even more powerful and convenient," she said.

About 17,000 Boeing Employee members use Online Access. Ms. Schwendeman added that the loan service has been well received.

"We had applications come in the first day, and they were for high- dollar loans too, not piddly little amounts."

It took Boeing Employees about a year to create the loan service. Ms. Schwendeman said the bank had little by way of example in the industry to help them.

"When you blaze a trail, it sometimes takes longer," she said.

With $2 billion in assets, Boeing is the largest credit union in Washington and the fourth-largest in the nation. Founded in 1935, the credit union's membership is open to all current and former employees of Boeing Co. and their families.

Public relations coordinator Pat Partington said Boeing's size makes it imperative that it come up with new ways for people to bank remotely.

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