Exodus of bank customers into credit unions likely to slow – The Seattle Times

Months before Occupy Wall Street grabbed the headlines, a group of activists on Vashon Island was agitating for people to transfer their deposits from big banks to credit...

Months before Occupy Wall Street grabbed the headlines, a group of activists on Vashon Island was agitating for people to transfer their deposits from big banks to credit unions.Problem was, Vashon Island didn't have a credit union. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and U.S. Bank were the only options

Months before Occupy Wall Street grabbed the headlines, a group of activists on Vashon Island was agitating for people to transfer their deposits from big banks to credit unions.

Problem was, Vashon Island didn’t have a credit union. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and U.S. Bank were the only options on the island of about 10,000 residents.

Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union, a small Bellevue institution with branches in Tacoma and Renton, recognized the opportunity.

It opened a Vashon branch in March and took in deposits of more than $5 million by June 30, the credit union said. Meanwhile, according to federal data, deposits at the big banks’ branches on Vashon as of June 30 collectively shrank about $3.3 million from a year earlier.

“We’ve seen a strong demand from those folks out there,” said Kevin Ellisen, CEO of Puget Sound Cooperative. “They don’t like the big banks very much.”

Read more

In this article

Join the Conversation