A credit union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by its members. Every credit union is democratically controlled - that is each member of the credit union has one vote to elect the board of directors of the credit union from among the credit union membership. In almost all cases, these boards serve as unpaid volunteers.
By law, credit unions cannot serve the general public. People qualify for credit union membership through their employer, organizational affiliation, church affiliation or by living in a defined geographical area. In Alabama today there are over 160 credit unions serving almost 1.5 million members.
Credit unions exist to help people, not to make a profit. The purpose of a credit union is to serve the financial needs of its members well, including those of modest means. This is why credit unions have scored the highest in banking customer satisfaction surveys for more than twenty years.
