ERIE, Penn. Erie General Electric FCU, one of three surviving GE credit unions ordered to relinquish the corporate moniker, announced a new name at its annual meeting Saturday Widget FCU, but will do business simply as Widget Financial.
The $260-million credit union, one of what was once eight separate GE credit unions representing different unions at the company’s locomotive plant, said it tested 45 different name options all with the goal of using the letters G-E-T in the name in tribute to GE Transportation.
The 77-year-old credit union was chartered to serve employees at Erie’s General Electric Transportation plant, but has expanded to serve residents of surrounding Erie and Crawford counties. It has merged with 16 other credit unions, including Erie Postal CU and Hamot FCU.
Two other surviving GE credit unions, General Electric CU in Cincinnati and General Electric Employees FCU in Milford, Conn., also received the corporate directive to stop using the GE moniker and brand.
The GE credit unions are among the latest in a long line shedding their one-time corporate sponsors’ names for one reason or another. The list includes Lockheed FCU (now Logix FCU), EDS CU (InTouch CU), United Airlines CU (Alliant CU), John Deere Employees CU (Veridian CU), and the more than a dozen IBM employees’ credit unions that now sport names such as Coastal FCU, Hudson Valley FCU, Visions FCU and Meriwest CU.
