ERIE, Penn. General Electric Co., whose name once blazoned across more than two dozen credit unions, has directed Erie General Electric FCU and two other credit unions in Ohio and Connecticut, to stop using the GE moniker.
The directive, delivered in a January letter from attorneys in the corporation’s Connecticut headquarters, comes as the $255 million credit union, now a community charter, was planning a name change to deemphasize the General Electric ties and its prior limitations on membership, according to Gail Cook, its president. “We don’t expect to miss a beat,” she told the Credit Union Journal this morning.
Cook pointed out that the GE directive is a blessing in disguise because many people still believe they have to be a GE employee to join, even though anyone in surrounding Erie or Crawford counties are eligible to join.
The credit union, which has been using the GE name for 76 years, plans to introduce a new name at its annual meeting Saturday. Cook would not disclose the new name but the credit union, located across the street from the GE plant, has taken out a trademark for the name Teal FCU.
The credit union is the latest in a long line shedding their one-time corporate sponsors’ names for one reason or another. Like Lockheed FCU (now Logix FCU), EDS CU (now 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 like Coastal FCU, Hudson Valley FCU, Visions FCU and Meriwest CU.
Erie General Electric FCU was one of more than two dozen credit unions-eight alone at the GE locomotive plant here—that once bore the GE moniker. Most have either stopped using the GE name to emphasize broader membership eligibility or been merged out of existence. But at least two other credit unions, General Electric CU, Cincinnati and General Electric Employees FCU, Milford, Conn., both of which received the same directive from the corporate giant, continue to thrive under the GE name.
Erie General Electric CU’s Cook said her credit union no longer receives any benefits from the corporation, other than free ATM placement at the plant and direct deposit of employee pay. She said costs of the name change should be minimal because of ongoing planning. They will allow current credit cards and checks to run out, among other things. “We’ve been planning this for a year-and-a-half,” said Cook.
