Florida's Seaboard CU Gets Nod Take in Duval County, Population 821,338

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Anyone or lives or works in Duval County is now eligible to join Seaboard Credit Union. After 77 years of exclusively serving employees of select business partners, Seaboard received approval from the State of Florida Office of Financial Regulations to expand its field-of-membership to include Duval County which according to the 2004 U.S. Census estimates has a population of 821,338. Seaboard President/ CEO Brent Lister cited three primary reasons the $114.8 million credit union wanted to expand its membership eligibility reach. For one thing, he said, the credit union wanted to minimize the risk of possible future economic downturns of its select employee groups. In addition, opening its membership to all of Duval County allows the credit union to make better use of two full-service branches SCU has opened up. Lastly, said Lister, Seaboard needed to be able to expand its membership reach to ensure its future growth. The credit union was chartered in 1929 as Seaboard Employees Credit Union to serve the employees of Seaboard Railroad. Over the years the number of select employee groups the CU serves has grown to include CSX Corp., AOL, Unisource Worldwide, and the Florida Physicians Association. SCU has 17,670 members. "Most companies around here already associate themselves with a credit union, so that left us with a weak expansion potential," said Lister, adding that the credit union can still add SEGs outside of Duval County by petitioning the state regulator. Seaboard has projected a 5% membership growth for 2006, and Lister emphasized that the credit union wants to grow "measurably." "We want to continue to focus on providing our members quality service. If we continue to focus on that and deliver personalized financial services that meet our members' needs, that will help us bring in new members," said Lister, adding that the credit union was not ruling out the possibility of expanding its membership to other nearby counties in the future. -