Navy Fed Floats Big ExpansionPlans

VIENNA, Va. - (04/13/06) -- Navy FCU said it is planning to addas many as 48 new branches to its worldwide network of 111 servicefacilities over the next five years, as the world's biggest creditunion seeks to keep up with its rapidly growing membership. The $25billion credit union plans to add 28 new branches by the end of2008, and will begin opening some of them in the next two weeks,according to Lee Gound, senior vice president of branch operations.On the near horizon are plans to open four new facilities inCalifornia, one each in Twenty-Nine Palms, Escondido, Santee andLemoore, and one in Pensacola, Fla., by year-end. The credit unionhas recently changed its mode of branch operations from leasing toownership, said Gound. The major areas being targeted for expansionare Washington, D.C., Virginia Beach, Jacksonville, Fla., andsouthern California; areas where the credit union has largeconcentrations of members. "It's just now coming together. We'llknow more in the next six or eight months," Gound told The CreditUnion Journal, of the expansion plan.