NCUA Charters 2023's First Federal Credit Union

The NCUA on Thursday granted 2023’s first federal charter to For Members Only Federal Credit Union, the first black-owned, woman-led and sorority-based digital banking financial institution in the United States.

Based in Chicago, For Members Only will serve Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority members, their families and the organization’s employees.

Terri Eason of Cleveland, is the president/CEO; her background includes nearly 20 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Her LinkedIn professional profile page showed Eason served as director of non-profit business services and senior relationship manager for PNC from 2006 to 2008. Before that, she also worked in a variety of positions at PNC as a vice president, project team leader, private banker, assistant vice president, branch manager, business loan officer and retail banking specialist. Eason currently serves as the senior director of advancement equity initiatives for the Cleveland Foundation.

AKA Sorority is a non-profit international service organization that began in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. It is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African American, college-educated women. AKA has more than 350,000 members in 1,061 graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Dubai, Germany, Japan, Liberia, South Africa and South Korea, according to AKA’s website.

AKA’s Form 990 return filed with the IRS showed the organization managed total assets of $50 million in 2020 and $45.5 million in 2019.

During the first year of operations, For Members Only plans to offer its members a number of savings and lending services including share accounts, share draft accounts, online banking, direct deposit, debit cards and personal loans, the NCUA said.

“It’s perfectly fitting that an organization whose members pledge to be of ‘Service to All Mankind’ has created a credit union,” NCUA Chairman Todd Harper said in a prepared statement. “This charter is also in keeping with AKA’s current initiatives to assist members in building economic wealth, promote social justice and uplift communities, all of which are fundamental to the statutory mission of credit unions. Congratulations to AKA’s leadership for bringing this effort to fruition. I look forward to watching their credit union grow and thrive.”

Last year, the NCUA chartered four credit unions.