The St. Gregor Credit Union hit an important milestone on March 20 with their 75th anniversary banquet.
Not a lot of independent Credit Unions have lasted this long without merging or shutting down, says St. Gregor-Annaheim branch General Manager, Alan Kiefer, including a few in the last few years. This recently includes Englefeld and Spalding, he says.
While this is a milestone for the branch, Kiefer says it is the community that should be proud of keeping the branch going.
“They supported it as well as they have over the years. Without the membership, it wouldn’t have happened.”
And that support has not just come from St. Gregor, but also Humboldt, Muenster, Annaheim, and many other surrounding towns.
Unfortunately some communities losing their own branches has meant more support for St. Gregor. People still want that level of control and customer service that comes from a branch like theirs and they try to do their best to offer that support, says Kiefer.
The St. Gregor Credit Union opened in 1942, one of the first in the area.
Those days, the biggest loan was about $15, says Kiefer, with around $1,000 worth of assets.
Now they are at around the $140 million mark between the joint St. Gregor and Annaheim branches but Kiefer says they are still considered one of the smaller branches in the province.
When Kiefer started around 30 years ago, there were over 100 branches just like theirs with their own names and an independent identity from each other. Now we are down to around 40 different kinds of branches in the province with over 300 outlets.
There is a lot of change when it comes to what a credit union looks like, but, again, Kiefer says that they have done well because of their membership and support from the community.
