Unique Union

Walking into Waco's First University Credit Union feels like walking into the old Bailey Building and Loan in Bedford Falls. The employees know the names of many customers, care about their lives, and want to help them find financial success. On a recent morning, the credit union's director of fourteen years, Gary Parker (pictured), was meeting with a long-time customer whose father had recently died. Moments later, he was visiting with a retired Baylor professor about a recent trip abroad. "We have many clients who have been around for many years," Parker said.

The credit union was founded in 1956 as the B.U.E. Credit Union, with the acronym standing for Baylor University Employees. "This credit union was started for the purpose of providing low-cost loans and savings to the Baylor faculty and staff and their families," Parker said. Now the field of membership also includes alumni and students and their families. Employees of Baylor-affiliated groups are also eligible, including employees and members of the Baylor Alumni Association and people who have been named Alumni By Choice by the association. With the expansion of the membership base, the credit union’s name was changed nine years ago.

Still, Parker said that about 70 percent of the customer base of four thousand members is Baylor faculty and staff, and about 10 percent of those are retirees. Parker estimates that 6 percent of the customers are students.

"Serving students is a real blessing," Parker said. "They are away from home for the first time, and if they come in and have overdraft problems, we can sit down and counsel them. We do a lot of financial education for students."

At the time of its name change, the credit union also moved across I-35 to a location on University Parks Drive, but Parker said the new spot has not discouraged Baylor employees, especially since it’s a stop on the campus trolley route. "We have a lot of people who get on the trolley and come over to do their banking during lunch," he said.

In addition to convenience, Parker said, credit union customers are looking for inexpensive checking and a good, safe place to put their money. The credit union offers a full array of financial services--checking, online banking, savings accounts, money market accounts, IRAs, car loans, many kinds of mortgages, retirement seminars and advice, and estate planning and investments (through an affiliated company). The credit union has avoided the pitfalls of the nation’s recent financial crisis.

"Our business model does not allow us to do subprime or hybrid mortgages," Parker said. "And we don't have any delinquencies in our mortgages. We only loan to members, so that says a lot about the people who work at Baylor."

As a credit union chartered by the state of Texas and insured by the federal government, First University is member owned. A volunteer board of members oversees the institution’s business.

With only nine employees, the credit union is an intentionally lean operation, Parker said. Despite that, he said, the employees always take time for the customers. "I like for the customers to know that they can come to me if they need me," Parker said. "I have always had an open-door policy."