54.3 F
San Diego
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
-Advertisement-

Credit Union to Serve Low-Income Community

Low-income communities will soon benefit from San Diego’s Faith Based Community Development Corp., a nonprofit credit union that will provide service and information to underserved populations.

This will be the first institution of its kind in the county and is scheduled to open by September. Daniel Scott, executive director of Faith Based, believes the service will be a big help to the community.

Scott has seen the need for such a credit union for some time. He previously worked for Encinitas-based Southwest Bank, and his own religious convictions gave him a preliminary vision.

The idea was further developed at a pastor’s conference in September. Some pastors spoke of their futile attempts to get bank loans and then pooled their financial resources to get a bank of their own.

“I thought maybe our nonprofit could do something to provide an alternative to the check-cashing places and offer services at low or no cost,” Scott said.

He has been busy assembling a founding board of directors, volunteers, advisory committee and lining up commitments from local banks.

Theodore Dennis, president and CEO of Point Loma Credit Union, has played a major role in helping make Scott’s vision a reality. The bank made a nonmember deposit of $100,000 and offered to help find other initial depositors. Point Loma Credit Union will also act as Faith Based Community’s mentor institution.

Scott hopes to amass about $2 million in deposits before opening.

The credit union’s initial membership base will be those who live and work in the 92054 ZIP code, which includes some of Oceanside and San Luis Rey. To maintain its low-income credit union status, the majority of members must be students or earn less than 80 percent of the average for all wage earners as established by the Federal Bureau of Statistics. This will include anyone earning $430 or less per month.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-