About First Priority Credit Union, Abilene, Texas
What is a credit union?
A Credit Union is simply people helping people. Members are united by a common bond of employment, residence, or association. A credit union is owned equally by its members, not a small group of private investors or a sponsoring company. An independent, not-for-profit financial cooperative, a credit union is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors elected from the membership.
Services are designed to meet the financial needs of individuals rather than businesses. The benefits to each member are numerous including a variety of savings opportunities and more personal, lower-cost loans than are usually available elsewhere.
“Once a member, always a member” is the rule; for instance, a member moving to Hawaii or Mexico may still belong to the credit union.
History of First Priority Credit Union
The original charter for First Priority Credit Union was drafted on July 14, 1930, and approved by the Texas State Banking Board on September 2, 1930. First Priority Credit Union was chartered as Abilene Postal Employees’ Credit Union by the following US Postal Service employees who also served as the original board of Directors:
- Paul H. Scott
- Henry T. Powell
- Webb B. Large
- Don R. Marshall
- L.C. Payton
- Burl G. Lesseter
- H. Grady Weir
- Bonnie Lisman
- Eugene C. Pearce
- Tommie Wood
- J.B. Girard, Jr.
The original Credit Union was located at the main post office of Abilene, Texas and served only the postal employees of the Abilene, Texas post office and their families.
Later, the credit union expanded its field of membership to include other civilian United States government employees, retirees, and separate employee groups as well as family members of any member.
In 1996, the credit union changed its name to First Priority Credit Union to reflect its dedication to postal employees as well as other eligible members. The members of Abilene Telco FCU were added to the First Priority Credit Union family in 2014 through a merger. As of July 2019, all those who live, work, worship or attend school in the Big Country can join. The area included is Taylor, Nolan, Callahan, Fisher, Jones, Shackelford, Runnels and Coleman Counties. Today, the credit union has over 1,400 members and over $15 million in assets.