NCUA Grants Charter to People Trust Community Federal Credit Union
New Arkansas financial cooperative, sponsored by a CDFI, is expected to open in early 2023.
Arlo Washington, a former barber who established a barber college and a financial literacy nonprofit group that morphed into a CDFI, is president/CEO of People Trust Community Federal Credit Union, which will begin serving its first members in early 2023.
The NCUA announced Tuesday it granted a federal charter and share insurance fund coverage for the North Little Rock, Ark.-based credit union, which is sponsored by the People Trust Community Loan Fund, a non-profit CDFI that offers certain loan products to low- and moderate-income communities in the central part of the state.
While working as a barber for about a decade, Washington saw a need in his community for financial services, according to a profile article published by the Port of Harlem, a general interest magazine that reports news and feature stories from a global Black perspective.
In 2008, Washington founded a financial literacy organization, Providing Equal Opportunity Promoting Learning Excellence, (PEOPLE), and in that same year, he opened the Washington Barber College, according to the magazine.
By 2014, PEOPLE transformed into PEOPLE Trust, which made small dollar loans to low-income students. PEOPLE Trust became a CDFI in 2016 and from the profits generated by the barber college, Washington provided the initial capital for the CDFI to offer loans, the Port of Harlem article reported.
The NCUA said the new financial cooperative will offer deposit-related products and services the CDFI cannot provide, as well as consumer loans. During its first year of operations, People Trust Community will focus on basic savings and lending services, including share accounts, share draft accounts, share certificates, new and used auto loans, unsecured loans, direct deposit, debit and credit cards, online banking and ATM access.
People Trust Community will primarily serve people who live, work, worship or attend school in Pulaski County (population, 397,821) and Saline County (population, 125,233) in central Arkansas. The credit union will be headquartered at 4103 East Broadway St., where the CDFI’s service office also is located.
“People Trust is aptly named. After all, it is by shared trust, commitment and investment that credit unions pool resources to create stronger communities,” NCUA Chair Todd Harper said in a prepared statement. “In the years ahead, we look forward to seeing how People Trust will assist its members in building more secure financial futures with safe, fair and affordable financial products and services.”
People Trust Community is the second federal credit union chartered in 2022. In August, the NCUA granted a charter for WeDevelopment Federal Credit Union in Kansas City, Mo.