Why are credit unions called credit unions? The term, after all, has set off a century of debate in the U.S. over whether another name would be better, perhaps something that also can be a verb used in place of "banking." "Credit unioning," for instance, has never caught on.
In Germany, the institutions were known as "Volksbank" or people's bank, or Raiffeissenbank, named after one pioneer of cooperative credit. In Quebec, credit unions were and are known by their French name, caisse populaire, and the first CU in the United States, founded to serve French-speaking mill workers and citizens in Manchester, N.H., was initially called La Caisse Populaire Ste. Marie before changing its name to St. Mary's Cooperative Credit Association.
At first, American credit union pioneer Edward Filene favored People's Banks, and the first organization he initially formed was called the National Association of People's Banks, which finally met its demise in 1921.
Later, Filene, along with Pierre Jay, the banking commissioner in Massachusetts, collaborated and agreed to use the term "credit union" in the United States. One account states that Filene's "concern with fighting moneylenders and excessively costly consumer loans led to the choice of the word 'credit,' while his interest in working people made him want to cast unions in a more positive light."
