DURHAM, N.C. – The Center for Community Self-Help, which operates the nation’s most prominent community development credit union, yesterday said it was granted a charter by NCUA to develop a new federal credit union that will allow it to offer financial services in California and elsewhere outside its home state.
Self-Help CU, which has grown into a $300 million institution, has emerged in the forefront of national efforts to reign in payday lenders, abusive financial services fees and subprime loans, and to refinance the growing number of home mortgages being exposed to foreclosure.
Self-Help FCU initially will focus on providing services to low income people in California, according to David Beck, a spokesman for the group. If successful, the model would be offered in other states through the federal charter.
“Self-Help wanted to increase its ability to provide services outside of North Carolina. So a federal charter is a logical step for us,” Beck told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. He said it chose to retain the separate state chartered credit union because of the brand it maintains in North Carolina, where the majority of its resources are focused.
The federal credit union would collect deposits and make loans separate from the state-chartered Self-Help CU. It will operate out of the Oakland, Calif., office of the Center for Responsible Lending, as do the two credit unions, and affiliate of the Center for Community Self-Help. To join, an individual would have to join the Center for Community Self-Help.
Self-Help CU was chartered in 1980 and has been one of the leading players on the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions program, which has provided more than $10 million in grants to the create a secondary loan market for non-conforming subprime mortgages, expand credit union services and capitalize another affiliate, the Self-Help Venture Fund, which received a $1 million grant in this year’s CDFI round.
