Plans for the new Puerto Rico location, located in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, began one year ago; PenFed opened it to help cut down the wait time for members using the credit union's first Puerto Rico Fort Buchanan branch.

"We've got people who would line up for hours to get through the gates to be able to get into the branch," she said. "We've been talking about putting a branch off-base for a long time and finally found one."

The new location also incorporates new a technology reminiscent of a certain Star Wars robot that recently made a comeback.

"It's a new open branch concept," she said. "We eliminated the teller line. We have cash recyclers instead of a traditional teller drawer and teller lines."

The cash recycler in question is "almost like an R2D2-looking thing," Myers said. She explained that the system allows two or three people to have access to the cash at the same time. Using a PC, tellers enter in the transaction and "it spits the cash out and they give it to the member and they are on their way," she added.

The second location in Guam shared the same waiting-in-line issues as the Fort Buchanan location. Its new branch in the center of the island aims to alleviate long wait times as well provide an off-base location for members.  

The investment has already begun paying off, as the new Puerto Rico location has seen hundreds of visitors a day, according to Myers.

"Initially we had hoped that a lot of the people who have been challenged with getting on Ft. Buchanan would move their business to the new San Patricio branch, but what we've seen is that Ft. Buchanan continues to be just as busy," Myers said. "People are continuing to line up and we are seeing almost as many people at the new San Patricio branch. Both locations are doing very, very well. It's our goal to increase our low interest accounts, that's what we're hoping to do, that and to increase both our auto loans and our credit cards, which have been very, very popular in Puerto Rico."

The Alexandria, Va.-based credit union also conducted three mergers in late 2015. The credit union merged with Corps of Engineers Federal Credit Union of Fort Worth, Texas on Nov. 2, 2015, adding nearly 1,900 new members, the entire COE FCU staff and $42 million in assets.

It also merged with AAFES Federal Credit Union of Dallas on Dec. 2, 2015. This merger added 6,500 new members and almost $92 million in assets. On the same day, PenFed merged with NAVFAC Federal Credit Union of Honolulu adding more than 2,000 members and almost $28 million in assets.

"Moving forward our branch strategy is not to open branches everywhere, but to open them where we have a significant, geographic, strategic advantage. Like in Puerto Rico and in Guam," Myers added.

Additionally, PenFed announced it is moving into a new office in the third quarter of 2016 in the Tyson's Corner area of Arlington.