America First CU Joins Federation's Community Development Partners Program - National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions

(January 9, 2007 - New York, NY) The $3.6 billion-in-assets America First Credit Union recently joined the the Federation as its newest Community Development Partner.

“America First Credit Union is pleased to affiliate with the Federation in sharing our commitment for social responsibility. The efforts expended on behalf of CDCUs further our mutual goal of financial success and financial stability for people from all walks of life,” said Tom Connors, Board Chairman of America First Credit Union.

“We are excited about this partnership with the largest credit union in Utah and one of the biggest in the country. The leadership of America First Credit Union is clearly committed to supporting the work of the Federation and to developing innovative solutions to address the needs of underserved populations” said Pablo DeFilippi, Associate Director of Membership Development at the Federation.

“We’d especially like to recognize the vision of Chairman Tom Connors and CEO Rick Craig regarding the social responsibility and accountability of larger credit unions. Their commitment sends a great message to the credit union movement” said Cliff Rosenthal, Executive Director of the Federation.

The Community Development Partners Program started in 2004 as a Federation initiative to engage larger credit unions that are committed to addressing the needs of underserved communities within their field of membership and/or want to support the efforts of community development credit unions in serving those communities.

The Federation currently has 38 Community Development Partners with combined assets of $81 billion and almost 8 million members. These credit unions are committed to the notion of financial inclusion for all and have opened new branches in low-income areas; offered services to immigrants; helped members with credit repair or access to a first loan; offered alternatives to “payday” loans; financed affordable housing; and/or provided technical or financial assistance to local CDCUs.

In 2006 the Federation added a number of other Community Development Partners ranging from $21 million to $2.1 billion in assets. These include Capital Communications FCU (Albany, NY), Charter Oak FCU (Groton, CT), District Government Employees (Washington, DC), GTE FCU (Tampa, FL), and UNO FCU (New Orleans, LA)

For more information about the program or to join as a Community Development Partner contact Pablo DeFilippi, Associate Director for Membership Development at (608) 231-4046, or by email at: pablo@cdcu.coop.