The Coalition’s vision is to found the first nationwide LGBTQ Credit Union by 2023 which can offer LGBTQ households and communities fair & equal access to financial services, planning, and products specialized for their unique financial concerns, and to achieve the unique economic goals of LGBTQ consumers & communities.
Credit unions offer all the in-person and online checking features customers expect from a 21st-century depository institution. But because a credit union’ mission is to serve the needs of its member community, CUs offer more comfortable, familiar, & friendlier service and their staff employ their community knowledge to develop and offer more targeted services which can meet the unique needs of their members, whereas traditional banks develop their products to sell to the mainstream mass-market.
Credit unions, like traditional commercial banks and thrifts, transform their members’ short-term deposits into longer-term loans to individual & business customers. Since lending from credit unions is a key means for businesses to start-up and to expand, credit unions are using member savings to make community investments. When that loan gets paid back, they use that revenue to pay back their depositors in savings and checking account interest and to make new loans to new borrowers–which can support a virtuous cycle of savings and investment.
A Credit Union can create good-paying jobs for financial and customer-service professionals with knowledge and/or experience dealing with LGBTQ finances and individuals.