Founders Federal Credit Union History

Founders Federal Credit Union has been around for over 50 years, bringing quality financial products and services to its customers and making it one of the top credit unions in South Carolina.

Benefits of Membership at Founders Credit Union

The credit union is owned by its members and the board of directors is a collection of individuals elected by the members to better serve their needs. Founders Credit Union offers all of the same services that much larger banks offer, but with the quality and assurance of a credit union. Most of these earnings are returned to the members through a variety of methods, from lower rates on loans to free services.

Founders FCU History

Spring Mills’ Colonel Elliott White Springs created Founders Federal Credit Union when he noticed that many of the Springs employees were going to local finance companies in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and taking out loans at very high interest rates. These finance companies weren’t really being regulated, so that’s why Founders Credit Union was made.

After the success that Founders Credit Union experienced in Fort Mill, it expanded its business to the Springs employees in Chester, South Carolina. During the spring of 1961, three more locations were chosen in Kershaw, Grace and Lancaster. For 30 years these credit unions would serve as individual entities, operating solely by themselves.

30 years later, around 1980, these five offices came together and merged as one, creating one single organization. Just three years later in 1983, Founders became known as Springfield Federal Credit Union, with other companies soon teaming up with it. By 1993, the name was changed again to what we know today, Founders Federal Credit union, in order to better represent the diverse it had acquired through the years.

Today, Founders employs more than 500 people, while providing quality service to more than 185,000 customers. With over $1.5 billion in total assets, this number continues to grow.