Ride the Credit Union ‘wayback machine’ | |
| Remember the classic cartoon series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle? One story line involved Mr. Peabody and the wayback machine—a time machine that transported Peabody and friends to the past, often with startl
ing results. So enter our wayback machine with us and we'll tell you a few things you may not have known about the origination of credit unions in general and about the beginning and continued growth of our IU Credit Union.
1844 -- Members organized the earliest viable cooperative, the Rochdale (England) Society of Equitable Pioneers. Credit unions, which also are cooperatives, still practice many of Rochdale's original cooperative business principles—quality services, at fa
ir prices, through member-owned and member-controlled financial service cooperatives.
1849 -- A depression in Germany crushed townsfolk and farmers alike. One mayor, Wilhelm Friedrich Raiffeisen, organized one of the first credit unions. He rallied villagers to pool their savings and lend money to each other at low interest rates.
1900 -- Alphonse Desjardins founded the first credit union in North America, in Levis, Quebec.
1909 -- Desjardins organized the first U.S. credit union, La Caisse Populaire Ste. Marie at Manchester, N.H. Also in 1909, the first general state credit union act, enabling credit union organizing and chartering, became law in Massachusetts, with help fr
om testimony by Desjardins and Edward A. Filene. Filene, owner of a Boston department store, began profit sharing and other novel benefit programs for his employees.
1921 -- Filene created the Credit Union National Extension Bureau to champion credit unions by seeking federal legislation and increased state legislation. | |
IU Home Pages
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Phone: (812) 855-6494
Publication date: October 13, 2000
Comments: homepgs@indiana.edu
Copyright 2000, The
Trustees of Indiana University