Corporate America Pays Members Nearly $10 Million

Corporate America Credit Union of Birmingham, Ala., distributed the equivalent of $9.7 million to members last year as free services and capital dividends — its largest in five years.

The distribution represented 0.33% of average assets for the 12 months ending Nov. 30, or an average of $18,601 for each of its 524 credit union members.

The amount is the corporate credit union’s largest distribution to date and consisted of $1.8 million in free services and $7.9 million in capital dividends.

It introduced “The Big Giveback” in 2018, and has paid members over $3.5 million in waived fees in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023.

President/CEO Pete Pritts said Corporate America tries to extend value to its members by charging lower fees, paying higher rates and advancing technology.

“We will be relentless in taking actions that support those words such as charging ZERO for services provided for as many months as we can and continuously paying very attractive rates,” Pritts said.

The free services include the Federal Reserve’s instant payment rail, the FedNow Service, The Clearing House’s (TCH) Real Time Payments Network (RTP) and a loan payment portal it calls “Rise.”

Corporate America (CACU) is certified to both send and receive transactions through FedNow and the RTP network. It was the first corporate to certify a core processor other than its own on the RTP Network.

CACU developed “Rise” to allow individual credit union members to pay their loans anywhere, anytime with a few clicks, which it said is especially helpful for indirect members who have their accounts elsewhere. CACU has processed more than $32 million in loan payments equaling nearly 70,000 items cutting down on delinquent payments.

Corporate America earned $18.7 million in the 12 months ending Nov. 30 for a 0.63% return on average assets, which was up from 0.30% a year earlier.