The credit unions — the working city's banks

1935 – today

3Rivers: The Federal Credit Union Act was a year old when Fort Wayne's factory workers began using it. The International Harvester Company Fort Wayne Works Employees Federal Credit Union was organised 14 February 1935 — its federal charter approved 28 February 1935, by the credit union's own published history only the 159th granted in the United States — and opened for business 1 April 1935 in the Harvester office at Pontiac Street and Bueter Road, with $250 in assets. At its first month's end it held $797.29 in assets and 483 members; it passed $1 million in assets in 1947 and by June 1965 was the largest credit union in Indiana, with $8,942,000 in assets and 6,997 members. It left the plant for a New Haven Avenue headquarters in 1976, renamed itself Three Rivers in 1982 and opened membership beyond the Harvester workforce as that workforce collapsed, and took a community charter in 2005. Its published figures give $2.2 billion in assets and some 500 employees by 2023, headquartered at 1615 Northland Boulevard.

The GE union: A year behind came General Electric's. GE employees at the Winter Street and Broadway plants petitioned for a charter that was granted 29 May 1936, as the General Electric Employees & Affiliates Federal Credit Union; its first office was inside the plant. It built a permanent home on Swinney Avenue opposite the GE plant in 1969, renamed itself MidWest America Federal Credit Union in 1987 as its field of membership widened, and opened its corporate headquarters on North Clinton that year. It reports more than 51,000 members and about $1 billion in assets today, still headquartered in Fort Wayne at 1104 Medical Park Drive.

The layer: The credit unions were the Depression's answer built by the borrowers themselves: member-owned, plant-gate institutions that lent on character and payroll where the reorganised banks would not. Between them the two great factory unions outlasted both of their founding employers' Fort Wayne works, and they stand today among the largest financial institutions the city still owns.

Sources:

1. 3Rivers Federal Credit Union, published history (3riversfcu.org) — the 1935 organisation and charter, the first-month figures, 1947, 1965, 1976, 1982, 2005 and the 2023 asset figures.
2. MidWest America Federal Credit Union, "About Us & Our History" (midwestamerica.net) — the 1936 GE charter, the Swinney Avenue home, the 1987 renaming and headquarters.
3. ACGSI, "GE — General Electric, Fort Wayne, Indiana" — the May 1936 charter grant and the plant offices, corroborating the credit union's account.