CU*Answers, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based cooperative CUSO, and Village Financial Cooperative, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based start-up credit union, announced that their two cooperatives will be working together in preparation for the credit union’s launch this summer by deploying the CUSO’s CU*BASE^® core data processing suite.

Village Financial Cooperative CEO Me’Lea Connelly commented: “In Minnesota, we are known as the land of 10,000 lakes but people forget that the same could be said for us being the land of cooperatives. We are an emerging black-led credit union in North Minneapolis with a mission to ignite a financial renaissance within the local black community and beyond through cooperative economic practice. We chose to partner with CU*Answers because as cooperators, we understand that in order to change the conditions of the underbanked and unbanked, we must change the actual conditions. The cooperative ecosystem allows for us to build generational wealth by operationalizing our mission in ways that change lives, build strong sustainable communities, and start to reverse the effects of wealth extraction and gentrification.”

Scott Collins, EVP of National Sales and Marketplace Relationships at CU*Answers said: “We were proud that the team at Village Financial Cooperative chose us as their core data processing partner. Our commitment to de novo start-up efforts is a fundamental part of our business plan and something that our cooperative is very proud of.”

“The Village Financial Cooperative team has worked very hard to prepare to begin serving members in their community, and from our very first conversations it was clear that our two cooperatives could really do something special together,” Collins continued.  It goes without saying that we are excited about helping another credit union open its doors, and we look forward to many years as partners.”