Arsenal Credit Union

Arsenal Credit Union

Formation	1948
Type	Credit union
Headquarters	Arnold, Missouri, United States
Region served	St. Louis metro area, plus employees and families of 36 companies and government agencies, and five local labor unions
Membership	25,600 (April 2014)
Key people	Linda Allen, President/CEO
Website	www.arsenalcu.org

Arsenal Credit Union (ACU) is a state-chartered credit union headquartered in Arnold, Missouri, and serving the St. Louis metropolitan area, chartered and regulated under the authority of the Missouri Division of Credit Unions. Member deposits are insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), a U.S. government agency. As of April 2014, ACU has approximately $200 million in assets, more than 25,000 members and six branches. It is the 10th-largest credit union in the St. Louis area and the 14th-largest in Missouri, based on asset size.

History

Arsenal Credit Union was founded in August 1948 as Aero Chart Credit Union, organized to serve employees of a U.S. government agency then known as the Aero Chart Service, Plant and Store (now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA). The name changed to Arsenal Credit Union in 1952, a tribute to what NGA's current campus along the banks of the Mississippi River in south St. Louis used to be known as (the "St. Louis Arsenal") back in the country's Civil War days, when the site had warehoused small arms, artillery, gun carriages, ammunition and gunpowder. In 2014 the credit union implemented a $0.25 per transaction fee for debit card users. They also implemented a $2 per month statement fee. This was done so management would keep their bonuses.

Field of membership

Membership is open primarily to anyone who lives or works in St. Louis and Jefferson counties in Missouri, the city of St. Louis, and St. Clair, Madison, Monroe and Randolph counties in Illinois, along with employees of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Veterans Administration, and 23 other companies and agencies in the region, as well as members of five St. Louis-area labor unions (BCTGM Local 4, CWA Local 4217, Iron Workers Local 396, SEIU Local 880 and UFCW Local 534).

Locations

Arsenal Credit Union has five public locations in the St. Louis area, in Arnold, Webster Groves, Florissant, and Oakville, Mo., as well as Swansea, Ill. It also maintains a branch on the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) campus just south of downtown St. Louis that is open only to NGA employees.

In addition, ACU is part of the Shared Branch network, meaning members can access their accounts at more than 50 other credit union shared branch locations in the St. Louis area and more than 5,000 nationwide. It is a member of the CO-OP Network of ATMs, giving members access to more than 250 fee-free ATMs in the St. Louis area and nearly 30,000 nationwide.

Products and services

Arsenal Credit Union offers a full complement of loans, savings accounts and checking accounts for consumers. Among its marquee products is the Interest Refund Auto Loan, unique to ACU, which pays back the last year of interest on an auto loan to qualified members. It offers a fee-free Totally Free Checking account.

In addition to consumer services, ACU offers business loans, deposit accounts and cash management products. As of October 2012, ACU had nearly 500 small business members in the St. Louis area.