History of HUECU

This is the second blog of a four part series: “Getting to Know HUECU”. The next article will be “Meet HUECU’s New CEO, Craig Leonard ”.

HUECU was founded in June 1939 by Harvard University employees. The first member meeting was held on June 26^th in the basement of Gray’s Hall (now the home of the Harvard College BLGTQ+ Center). At the time, the most you could borrow in an unsecured loan was $50. At the end of 1939, HUECU had a total of 547 members and our assets equaled $8,446.29. At the time, membership was restricted to Harvard University employees, and there were no paid staff members for the Credit Union.

In 1983, the Credit Union’s charter was changed to extend membership eligibility to employees of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.

The charter was amended again in 2004 to expand field of membership to now include students and alumni of Harvard University and all Harvard University Schools, as well as employees of affiliates of Harvard University, not just Harvard University employees. HUECU welcomed students, alumni, employees and retirees of Lesley University and affiliates of Lesley University to join HUECU under another expanded membership eligibility update to our charter in 2007.

HUECU is proudly affiliated with universities and teaching hospitals; it’s only natural that we’d value financial education too! In January of 2012, we started our award-winning annual Wintersession program in collaboration with Harvard College. The multi-day event teaches the basics of finance to Harvard University students during January term on the Yard. In 2019, HUECU won the Desjardins Adult Financial Education Award program from the Credit Union National Association for our financial education programs, including our Student Advisory Council and Wintersession.

September of 2012 marked the launch of the Harvard University Alumni Credit Card program at HUECU, allowing members to support the Harvard University Alumni Association with every purchase.

We announced the opening of our newest full service branch in the Assembly Row administration building for Mass General Brigham in April of 2017. In November of 2019, we upgraded the technology behind our online and mobile banking applications —making it easier than ever to bring HUECU with you on the go!

HUECU continues to make progress and move forward in 2020 as well! HUECU is now just shy of $1 billion in assets. Our dedicated staff of over 120 employees serve over 50,000 members around the world via shared branching, our website and mobile applications in addition to our location in Harvard Square and the other four branch offices.

Under the leadership of our new CEO Craig Leonard, we are continuing to engage with our members and communities as we try to ease the financial burdens our members are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about who HUECU serves, please visit ttps://huecu.org/membership/eligibility/.