Central Credit Union of Maryland:
Central Credit Union of Maryland, formed in 1950, is a member-owned, not-for-profit financial institution. The Central Credit Union's earnings are given back to the members in the form of lower interest rates on loans, higher interest rates on savings accounts, lower fees and many other free services. Our mission is based on three simple concepts: service, value and loans. We want to provide our members with the best financial services, maintaining the best values while becoming our members' CENTRAL loan source. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), a federal agency, federally insures each member's deposits up to $100,000 per account.

History of Credit Unions:
Credit unions are "financial co-operatives" that have been around for centuries. The general idea behind credit unions is that they are member owned. This means if you are a member of a credit union you have a say in how it is run and you get part of the profits through higher savings rates and lower loan rates.
The origins of the credit union idea began in Germany in the mid-1800s. Herman Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Raiffeisen founded a cooperatively owned bakery and mill during a famine in 1846. The local people gathered their grain and made bread that was sold at a lower price to the members of the cooperative. Delitzsch and Raiffeisen extended their idea to banking in 1850 with the "people's bank."

The credit union idea spread to Canada in 1900 when Alphones Desjardins opened La Caisse Populaire De Levis in Levis, Quebec. It was not until 1909 that the credit union trend made its way to the United States. A group of Franco-American Catholics organized St. Mary's Cooperative Credit Association in Manchester, New Hampshire. The first Credit Union Act was established in 1909 in Massachusetts and became the basis for other state laws and the Federal Credit Union Act.

In the 1920s, credit unions grew at an outstanding rate. By 1930 there were 1100 credit unions in the United States. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act into law. This act allowed federally charted credit unions in all states. In 1970 the National Credit Union Administration was created to oversee all credit unions and maintain a level of safety for its members.

Today there are almost 13,000 credit unions in the United States with more than 70 million members living by the credit union motto "Not for profit, not for charity, but for people."