St. Louis Community Credit Union (SLCCU), a nonprofit credit union and CDFI, has been serving the St. Louis metropolitan area for more than 70 years by providing affordable financial products to an underserved population that has been disenfranchised from the mainstream financial system. SLCCU has received a Low-Income Designation (LID) and is recognized as a Minority Depository Institution (MDI). Using two NMTC allocations, SLCCU expanded its services with the addition of 3 new facilities and upgrades to 2 existing branch locations.  Smith NMTC helped secure the allocation amounts, working with two CDEs, structured the transactions, and will continue to support SLCCU through accounting and compliance until the exit after the 7-year compliance period.

Using a $3.1M allocation from Heartland Regional Investment Corporation, SLCCU built a new facility in St. John, MO. This location shares collaborative space with an Excel Center, an outreach of SLCCU’s nonprofit affiliate Prosperity Connection, which offers free one-on-one financial coaching and group financial and life skills classes, access to academic scholarship funds for adult students, and more. Since opening, the center has hosted classes on topics that range from Goal Setting & Saving Money to First-Time Home Buying.

In 2016, using a $4M allocation from St. Louis Development Corporation (CDE), SLCCU opened a new branch on Union and a Wealth Accumulation Center on Gravois, allowing it to serve an additional 10,000 low-income persons. At all facilities, SLCCU provides free or low-cost checking and savings accounts, small dollar loans, used auto loans, home loans, affordable check cashing services, financial education and more. The Union Branch is on the site of the former Gateway Bank, established in 1965 as the first African American owned and operated bank in Missouri. With the closing of Gateway Bank, the surrounding predominantly low-income African American community was left unbanked. Thanks to the new branch opening this community will have access to financial services. The Wealth Accumulation Center contains 3 separate enterprises that offer financial education and services. The Excel Center offers free benefits analysis, financial and life skills coaching, tax preparation services and referrals to nonprofit partners as well as affordable financial services. The SLCCU transaction hub provides basic account services. And, the RedDough Money Center offers low-cost, small dollar loans, check cashing, money transfers through a nonprofit model that returns all proceeds to the surrounding community in the form of free financial education, matched savings programs and more. Collectively, the St. John and Union branches and Wealth Accumulation Center provide robust life skills education and mainstream financial services to underbanked and unbanked populations.

Recognizing the growing needs of low-and-moderate-income communities throughout its service area, SLCCU became a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in 2009 to better assist households facing economic challenges. In subsequent years, the credit union has received a Low-Income Designation (LID) and recognized as a Minority Depository Institution (MDI).

Between 2016 and 2018, these three new locations opened 5,177 new accounts and closed loans totaling $7,295,000.

Read more about this project here.