The Greater Atlanta Catholic Federal Credit Union (GA Catholic FCU) has merged with the Georgia Federal Credit Union, enabling it to provide more financial services to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Some of the services available to members of the Archdiocese of Atlanta will be PC home banking, e-statements, online bill pay, a 24-hour telephone teller information line, free direct deposit checking, consumer and mortgage loans, investment accounts and more.

The GA Catholic FCU was founded in 1971 as the Immaculate Heart of Mary Credit Union, functioning as a small financial cooperative open to eight other Atlanta parishes and members of the St. Vincent De Paul Society. Through the years, the GA Catholic FCU offered savings and loan services, but employees realized that in order to effectively serve the financial needs of their membership, they needed to offer a wider range of services and better delivery channels. Located in a tiny office on North Druid Hills Road, its volunteer board of directors and the one full-time employee, Anne Dorris, realized that they needed to develop a plan. And their best course of action seemed to be affiliating with a larger credit union with additional resources to expand service offerings to their members. After looking at various metro Atlanta credit onions, nearby Georgia Federal Credit Union was selected.

Georgia Federal Credit Union is the largest educators credit union in Georgia with 13 branch locations and $370 million in assets. Originally chartered in 1958 as the DeKalb County Teachers Federal Credit Union, GFCU already had a number of Catholic schools in their field of membership—such as St. Pius X High School and Marist School—and their commitment to community service appealed to GA Catholic FCU.

A merger was arranged in the late fall of 2004, and Anne Dorris became a full-time employee of GFCU, with the title of GA Catholic division liaison. The board of directors for the Catholic Credit Union became an advisory board for GFCU, and they meet periodically to give direction and guidance to GFCU on how to best serve the Catholic community of metro Atlanta.

Msgr. Stephen Churchwell is chairman of the Catholic advisory board of GFCU, and he is impressed with the resources and effort that is being targeted to the Catholic market.

“From the beginning of our affiliation with GFCU, they have committed significant resources to Catholic causes and event sponsorship, and they are forming a Catholic parish representative network to provide better access to programs, such as their community speakers bureau.”

One of the last actions Archbishop-emeritus John F. Donoghue completed before his retirement in late 2004 was to petition the National Credit Union Administration to offer credit union service to all members of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

The Georgia Federal Credit Union received approval on Feb. 1 to serve all members of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, which includes parishes in 69 counties.