About Us

American Lake Credit Union’s history dates to 1947 and evolved over time as it combined with two other credit unions; Minutemen Credit Union in 1999 and KBR Credit Union in 2015. As of September 30, 2018, American Lake CU had Assets totaling $67.5M and serving over 6,200 members from four locations.

American Lake Credit Union History

(originally American Lake Veterans Administration Federal Credit Union)

In 1947 a group of seven American Lake VA Medical Center employees learned about the idea of a credit union. Those seven employees sought and received approval to charter American Lake Veterans Administration Federal Credit Union (ALVA FCU). The Charter was signed April 1, 1948.

In 1998 the credit union received approval to change from a Federal to a State charter in order to facilitate a merger with Minutemen Credit Union.

Minutemen Credit Union History

(originally Western Washington Nation Guard Credit Union)

The Western Washington National Guard Credit Union was incorporated, February 24, 1958, in Houghton, WA. The founders of the Credit Union were personnel from Camp Murray, The Seattle Armory, the 240th Missile Battalion and the 770th Missile Battalion. The primary purpose of the Credit Union was to provide a place for employees and members of the National Guard and their families to place their savings at a high dividend rate and borrow money for different purposes at a reasonable rate of interest.

On May 6th, 1960 the Credit Union changed its name to Minutemen Credit Union, and moved its office to Kent, WA.

In October 1969, the Credit Union moved to Camp Murray, and in February 1990 leased land from the State of Washington and built its own facility on Camp Murray.

In early 1998, Minutemen Credit Union started talks with ALVA FCU regarding the possibility of merging the two Credit Unions. The Credit Unions shared the borders of American Lake and also shared a military connection. In April 1998, the membership of Minutemen Credit Union approved the merger with ALVA FCU. At the same time, the newly merged credit unions changed their name to American Lake Credit Union.

KBR Credit Union

(originally St. Regis Credit Union)

The St. Regis Credit Union was started in 1940 to support the employees of the St. Regis Mill in Tacoma. During 1942, the mill was shut down due to the war effort and the credit union charter was relinquished back to the state. In 1949, the mill resumed operations and the employees were successful in regaining the credit union charter.

During the 1980’s, St. Regis sold the mill to Simpson who maintained ownership until the mid-2010’s when it went through multiple ownership and name changes.

The name was changed decades ago to have autonomy from the ownership structure of the mill. In determining the name, St. Regis had three divisions in which the employees of each were eligible for credit union membership; Kraft, Bag and Regional. The credit union adopted the first letter for each division to form the name KBR Credit Union.

KBR Credit Union entered merger discussions with American Lake CU in 2015 as it sought to expand its services and locations to serve it’s expanding membership. On December 1, 2015, the merger became legally effective after a successful membership vote in November.