SAN FRANCISCO – Occupy San Francisco, an offshoot of the national protest movement that began as Occupy Wall Street, which has embraced credit unions and the cooperative structure, announced plans to charter their own credit union to attract San Francisco residents, businesses, and local non-profit and city agencies to keep their money out of the big banks and to redistribute their savings locally.
The Occupy leaders said the initial services of the Peoples Reserve CU will include micro-loans for the working poor and homeless and subsidized student loans at low interest rates. The Occupy San Francisco members are being supported by a variety of community groups including GLIDE Church and the Council of Light, and several city councilmen.
The leaders of the initiative have contacted the state Department of Financial Institutions to register the credit union name and begin the chartering process.
Founders want to start with 500 members and grow to 2,000 members, two branches and $7 million in capital assets by the end of next year. They say branch staffing will add 60 part-time jobs to the local economy, and the entire enterprise will create a total of 1,000 jobs in the city. Organizers also pledge to help residents by offering microloans of $5,000 or less and subsidized student loans at lower-than-average rates.
