Credit Union 1 Pushes Into the Arctic, a Potential First for a CU

Alaska’s Credit Union 1 plans to open a branch late this year 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

The branch will open in Kotzebue, Alaska, 539 miles north of Credit Union 1’s headquarters in Anchorage and at the tip of an island-like peninsula on the Chukchi Sea. Thursday’s high is expected to reach 54 degrees with sunset about midnight.

“Our Kotzebue Branch will be the furthest north credit union in Alaska,” Jessica Gallagher, CU1′s director of communications, said Wednesday.

Credit Union 1 ($1.5 billion in assets, 92,248 members) said more than three-quarters of its 3,100 residents are indigenous people of Inupiat descent, and Alaska Native culture permeates the community. Kotzebue is one of the larger “hub” communities in rural Alaska that provide services to smaller, even more remote villages across the vast state.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be able to offer our services in a new community like Kotzebue,” President/CEO Mark Burgess said. “As a hub for much of Northwest Alaska, the branch will enable Alaskans in nearby villages to access financial services that may not have been available to them before.”

Kerry Youngren, CU1’s vice president of marketing and communications, said another new CU1 location is scheduled to open in late 2024 in Wasilla, Alaska. With the upcoming openings of the Kotzebue and Wasilla branches, CU1 will have 14 locations across the 49th state.

“This is a big year for CU1, but not only from a location expansion standpoint,” Youngren said.

“We’ve added new member benefits like free access to Greenlight, giving members new means to manage family finances and an easy and engaging way to give their kids a stronger financial foundation,” she said. “We are also launching a small-dollar loan program via QCash that will offer members a safety net, helping them to avoid the pitfalls of high-cost, short-term borrowing.”

The credit union said the new branch was enabled by its community partner, Alaska Commercial Co. (AC), which is allowing the branch to be located inside a new AC store being built in the heart of town. It said AC stores supply essential goods in many remote Alaska communities.

Credit Union 1 and four other credit unions had 76 of the state’s 94 branches as of March 31, based on NCUA data. Credit Union 1, which had all of its 12 branches in Alaska, had the third most branches. The other four were:

• Global Federal Credit Union of Anchorage ($11.4 billion in assets, 760,746 members), which had 31 of its 80 branches in Alaska.
• Tongass Federal Credit Union of Ketchkan, Alaska ($215.2 million in assets, 13,564 members) had all 13 branches of its branches in Alaska.
• Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union of Palmer, Alaska ($913.9 million in assets, 60,465 members), which had 10 of its 11 branches in Alaska (the other one is in Honolulu).
• Nuvision Federal Credit Union of Los Angeles ($3.4 billion in assets, 175,456 members), which had 10 of its 27 branches in Alaska.