MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE ALBANY, GA -- Navy Federal Credit Union held the grand opening ceremony for its Albany branch office in Building 3600 here Tuesday.
Col. Charles V. Mugno, base commanding officer, and Connie Schauer, NFCU member service center manager, cut the ribbon to officially welcome the financial institution to the base.
Tim Martin, Albany Area Chamber of Commerce president, was also present to welcome the credit union to the community.
Almost one year ago, Albany Government Employees Credit Union (Heritage Bank), the previous on-base financial institution, converted from a credit union to operate as a bank. At that time, Heritage Bank officials decided to close their MCLB branch office.
Now NFCU is the on-base financial institution. The credit union is expected to be supported by approximately 2,000 members currently in the area
"The face-to-face relationship is very important to Navy federal," said Loren Moeller, NFCU public relations specialist. "We want to be able to provide services to members in a face-to-face manner, but still give them the option to access the credit union in any way they want to, whether it's by phone, the internet, or the new branch office."
Navy Federal is the world's largest credit union, with more than $15 billion in assets and 2.1 million members worldwide. The credit union serves most military and civilian personnel of the Navy and Marine Corps and their families. Headquartered in Vienna, Va., Navy Federal operates 95 member service centers and 253 proprietary ATMs worldwide.
The credit union will also provide members access to a wide degree of services, ranging from checking and savings accounts, to credit cards, loans and investment help. NFCU currently has one automatic teller machine at the branch office. Officials say they are waiting on base response to see if another ATM is necessary here.
"We are very excited to be serving our members at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany as well as our members that perhaps live in the Albany community," said Moeller.
Membership is open to all active duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel, Department of Defense employees, retirees and family members. Due to the unique circumstances surrounding MCLB Albany's work force, the credit union will also be open to Active Duty Army.
Prior to the credit union's arrival, the facility for the credit union went under some reconstruction and renovation.
According to Schauer, the new look of the facility is more friendly and inviting. Some of the changes include new flooring, countertops, paint and wallpaper. The offices were relocated and the credit union has a different design than its predecessor.
"The only walls that were left standing were weight-bearing walls. It is brand new. It is very pleasant to work in, and it has a friendly atmosphere," Schauer said.
"We hope that we can service all of the MCLB community as best we can within our membership abilities; and hopefully a lot of their families as well as those in the surrounding area, both retired and active duty will become members," she continued.
Anyone interested in becoming members of Navy Federal can log on at: www.navyfcu.org or call Navy Federals membership line at 1-800-656-7676 ext. 4 or visit the branch site here.
"We really appreciate the command support that we've gotten here and all of the positive support that we've gotten from the base. It's been wonderful," Schauer added.