Summit Credit Union
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Established in 1935, Summit Credit Union is a member-owned financial cooperative. Summit holds $7.3 billion in assets and has more than 261,100 members and 920 employees across 60 locations throughout Wisconsin. Since 2002, Kim Sponem has been CEO & President of Summit Credit Union, formerly known as CUNA Credit Union/Great Wisconsin Credit Union.
Summit was named to Forbes list of America’s Best-In-State Credit Unions 2024. Summit was also recognized in 2024 for continued excellence in employee engagement as a Top Workplace USA by USA Today for the fourth consecutive year and a Top Workplace in the Madison area by the Wisconsin State Journal the fifth year in a row. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel named Summit a Top Workplace in Milwaukee in both 2023 and 2024. Additionally, and representative of its focus on financial education, Summit received the Governor’s Financial Literacy Award in 2010, 2014, and 2016 and the Governor’s Financial Literacy Award – Legacy in 2019.
History
[edit]Kim Sponem, CEO & President of Summit Credit Union, has been a credit union CEO for more than 20 years, including the top job when Summit was named Great Wisconsin Credit Union and, originally, CUNA Credit Union.[1]
CUNA, Inc. founded CUNA Credit Union, known today as Summit Credit Union, on September 17, 1935 in Madison, Wisconsin to serve the credit union movement and anyone else who was in need of credit union services. This unique charter was granted by the Wisconsin bank commissioner in 1935.[2]
The first location was in its sponsor company, in the Filene House. Credit union movement pioneers and organizers Thomas Doig and Roy Bergengren were early advocates for the formation of CUNA Credit Union to ensure all people everywhere had access to credit union membership. Back then, employees of a credit union could not borrow from their credit union. The credit union was there to ensure that employees could still receive their product needs from a credit union and that state leagues across the country had access to a credit union for their banking needs.[3]
Shortly after establishing this credit union, CUNA Mutual was formed to provide insurances and other services to credit unions and became one of its sponsor groups in addition to CUNA, Inc. The credit union expanded to other credit union entities as they were created, including World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), Credit Union Executive Society (CUES) and Filene and expanded to serve anyone, anywhere.
In 2005, CUNA Credit Union changed its name to Great Wisconsin Credit Union (GWCU) and then, in 2008, changed its name to Summit Credit Union, merging in the former Summit Credit Union, formerly State Capitol Employees Credit Union, maintaining CUNA/Great Wisconsin’s original charter and field of membership.[4][5][6][7]
References
[edit]- ^ January 29, Staff Writer |; Magazine, 2002 at 07:00 PM | Originally published on Credit Union Times. "Sponem named CUNA CU CEO". Credit Union Times. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Credit Union Online". National Credit Union Administration. Archived from the original on January 14, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
- ^ "CUNA Credit Union - Cunacu.org". www.cunacu.org. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ BALOUSEK, MARV. "GROWTH SPURT MADISON'S SUMMIT CREDIT UNION WILL MERGE WITH ONE IN MILWAUKEE". madison.com. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ "Summit ascends to No. 1 in state". nl.newsbank.com. July 25, 2010. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
- ^ services, State Journal staff, The Capital Times, wire. "ECONOMY WATCH". madison.com. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)