Stanford Federal Credit Union (or Stanford FCU) is a federally chartered

credit union A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit cooperative financial institution. They may offer financial services equivalent to those of commercial banks, such as share accounts (savings accounts), share draft accounts (che ...

located in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It provides banking services to the

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

community. Stanford FCU has over $3.6 billion in assets and serves over 80,000 members.

History

Stanford Federal Credit Union was created by a group of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

employees on December 17, 1959. Its original field of membership was limited to employees of the university. The credit union opened in 1960 with $261 in deposits and established its first office in Encina Hall on Stanford University’s campus. In 1985, Stanford Federal Credit Union expanded its field of membership to include

students and members and employees of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce. In 2004, the credit union opened its membership to members of the Friends of Palo Alto Libraries (FOPAL). Today, Stanford Federal Credit Union also serves numerous company partners, including Google, VMware, Facebook, Tesla, SAP and more.

Expansion of Services

The credit union became one of the first to offer

checking account A transaction account (also called a checking account, cheque account, chequing account, current account, demand deposit account, or share account at credit unions) is a deposit account or bank account held at a bank or other financial instituti ...

s and credit cards in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, it introduced ATMs and banking by telephone. In November 1993, Stanford Federal Credit Union conducted its first four internet transactions; and in 1994, it became the first financial institution to offer

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institut ...

when it launched its website; it offered online BillPay to its members in 1997, added account aggregation and mobile banking in 2002, and became one of the first institutions to implement the Passmark authentication system in 2005. In 2007, Stanford FCU joined the

CO-OP A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

network to provide its members with over 30,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide.

Membership

Any member of the Stanford community may join Stanford Federal Credit Union, including students and employees of Stanford University, employees of Stanford Health Care, Stanford Children’s Health, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The credit union’s field of membership also extends to the following: * Companies that are located on Stanford-owned lands * Members, employees, and volunteers of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce * Employees of member companies of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce * Employees of select member companies, including Google, VMware, Facebook, Tesla and SAP * Members, employees, and volunteers of the Friends of Palo Alto Libraries (FOPAL) * Members, employees, and volunteers of the Museum of American Heritage (MOAH)

Organization

Stanford Federal Credit Union is chartered by the

National Credit Union Administration The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is an American government-backed insurer of Credit unions in the United States, credit unions in the United States, one of two agencies that provide deposit insurance to depositors in U.S. deposi ...

(NCUA) as a federally insured credit union. It is led by a Board of Directors that is elected by the credit union’s members and serves without pay.

Products and services

Stanford Federal Credit Union offers a range of financial services, including consumer and business accounts and

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

s. Financial tools and services in the form of webinars, online calculators, and financial counseling are also available to both consumer and business members of the credit union. The credit union has six branch locations and maintains over 30 ATMs around the

campus and

. As a member of the

Network since 2007, Stanford Federal Credit Union also has access to over 30,000 additional surcharge-free ATMs.

Subsidiary

In 1997, Stanford Federal Credit Union announced the creation of its wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

, Cardinal Services Corporation (CSC). The corporation focused on licensing software and supporting Internet development for businesses. Cardinal Services Corporation operated as a

credit union service organization Credit union service organizations (CUSOs) are United States corporate entities that are owned by federally insured credit unions and provide services to them. These are often used by credit unions to share common services between several credit ...

(CUSO). CUSOs were established by the NCUA as a way for credit unions to conduct business that they would otherwise be restricted from. A spin-off of Cardinal Services Corporation, Cyberbranch, was announced in April 2000 by Stanford Federal Credit Union, and replaced the CUSO. CyberBranch specialized in internet and intranet technologies designed for the financial services industry. In June 2001, Canadian

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

management and business process services company, CGI Group Inc. acquired Cyberbranch for US$1 million.

Community involvement

In 2004, Stanford Federal Credit Union funded an endowed professorship within Stanford University’s School of Humanities and Sciences.

References

{{Authority control Credit unions based in California Companies based in Palo Alto, California Banks established in 1959