financial services
Cooperative lending institutions often go where many investor-held banks won't, which means they're pumping billions of dollars into urban neighborhood stores and small-town businesses — and everything in between.
Credit unions' rich history begins in the early 1900s, when poor and working classes were denied credit from established banks and were forced to borrow from pawnbrokers and other unscrupulous moneylenders. They came together and took action, forming "people's banks." In 1934, President Roosevelt signed into law the Federal Credit Union Act in support of their community-minded stance. Today, the Act regulates approximately 12,000 credit unions, serving more than 76 million consumers around the country.
