The History of America's Credit Unions
Our legacy began in the early 1940s when we were founded by a group of Commonwealth Edison employees. In 1999, we expanded our charter to serve the needs of the community and of members outside of Commonwealth Edison, we changed our name to First Northern Credit Union.
History
Our membership began when Commonwealth Edison established separate credit unions for each of its departments in the early 1940s. When the company dissolved its credit unions, a handful of employees took it upon themselves to keep the idea of a financial cooperative alive. Their innovations paid off. Not only did they receive $5,000 and some office space and equipment from ComEd, they also gained approval from the Department of Financial Institutions to incorporate a credit union. And on February 7, 1944, Edison Credit Union was born. By the end of that year, we served 1,169 Commonwealth Edison employees and had more than $88,000 in assets.
1999 proved to be a watershed year for us, as we made a strategic decision that would change the world of Edison Credit Union forever: we requested a community charter. The Department of Financial Institutions granted our request, enabling us to serve consumers who lived or worked in a seven-county area in northern Illinois. And so, a new corporate identity was born. On July 1, 1999, Edison Credit Union became First Northern Credit Union.
With our new name came a renewed spirit and tremendous growth. In addition to our downtown Chicago branch (which opened in 1996), we opened a branch in Rockford in 2000, and a branch on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston in 2003. In 2006, we moved that location to a larger location on Clark Street, and finally in 2013 to its current location on Sherman Avenue. In 2010, we opened our Chicago Streeterville branch on the campus on Northwestern Medicine, and in 2019 we expanded our mortgage operations to include a Mortgage Service Center in Rockford. Today, we proudly serve tens of thousands of member-owners across northern Illinois, and within various Select Employer Groups.
First Northern Credit Union's Streeterville branch opened on the campus of Northwestern Medicine in 2010.
First Northern Credit Union expanded into the Rockford community in 2000 with a location on North Show Place Drive.
First Northern (as Edison Credit Union) had prior locations in the basement of the Rebecca Crown Center on the campus of Northwestern University, and on Clark Street in Evanston, and opened its current location on Sherman Avenue in 2013.