Credit/Marine FCU
Marine Federal Credit Union in Jacksonville, N.C., celebrated a major milestone last month – the credit union's surpassing of $1 billion in assets.
On Monday, Oct. 15, Marine's more than 250 employees, Board members and Supervisory Committee members along with military and government dignitaries gathered to mark the achievement. According to Marine's announcement, the credit union's story began on April 20, 1959 when eight men put in a request with the Bureau of Federal Credit Unions to create a federal credit union that would serve the military, Department of Defense employees and their families aboard Marine Corp Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.
The founders' request was approved on April 24, 1959, and the credit union's first official office/branch opened in a warehouse aboard Camp Lejeune. It was heated by a pot-bellied stove and secured by a chicken wire fence, according to Marine. The credit union now serves 81,525 members from 12 branches in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina, plus runs a digital branch.
"It took us 65 years to parlay $40 into $1,000,000,000 dollars at the end of August," Marine Board of Directors Chairman Chuck Collins stated.
Marine's asset growth has been on an upward trajectory over the past five years, according to its Call Reports filed with the NCUA. As of Sept. 30, 2019, Marine had assets of $721.5 million, which grew to $795.5 million by the same date in 2020, and then to $886.5 million by the same date in 2021, $929.4 million in 2022 and $956.1 million in 2023. That growth followed a drop in assets from $721.5 million to $712.4 million from Sept. 30, 2014 to Sept. 30, 2015, and a four-year time period when assets teetered between $720.4 million and $721.5 million from Sept. 30, 2016 and Sept. 30, 2019.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
