Employee Groups FAQs

A bank is a for-profit company that exists to generate high profits for its stockholders. A bank is governed by a Board of Directors that makes decisions to benefit stockholders. Those decisions may not always be in the best interest of a bank's customers. Unlike a bank, a credit union is a not-for-profit cooperative owned by its members and managed by a full-time professional staff for the exclusive benefit of its members.

Credit unions have no stockholders, so after paying operating expenses and setting aside reserves, all remaining income is returned to members in the form of higher paying dividends, lower loan rates, reduced fees and enhanced services. In addition, a volunteer Board of Directors is elected by the members to ensure that all members have a voice in the credit union. Those serving on the Board must be members.

Once we have determined that a mutually beneficial relationship can be established, your company would need to complete an affiliation agreement and application for membership in the Central Credit Union Association Of Illinois, which would allow you to begin offering the benefit to your employees.

We provide our affiliated companies with all materials and training needed to efficiently and effectively administer and promote the credit union benefit and to enroll employees. We strongly believe that your company only benefits from offering credit union membership if your employees are aware of the benefit and its value. Therefore, we request that affiliated companies commit to promoting the benefit among employees and allow us to make periodic on-site visits to answer employee questions and enroll new members. We also ask that you offer to employees direct deposit into credit union accounts via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) method. A company representative is also needed to administer the benefit and answer basic questions.

Your organization would assume no liability whatsoever for your employees' credit union transactions.

Credit union deposits are federally insured to at least $250,000 by the National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government agency. IRAs are insured separately up to $250,000.

Because our primary mission is to further the financial well-being of our members, we're a very strong advocate of 401K and other retirement savings plans. Although we offer a wide variety of savings services, including IRAs, we encourage members to take advantage of savings plans offered through their employers and to utilize our offerings as a way to contribute more to savings once employer limits have been reached.

For more information about affiliation, please call Business Development at (708) 649-6495 or click here.