State of Your Credit Union

Introducing a new way to stay up to date on all the happenings at Southwest Louisiana Credit Union! As a loyal member, we want to keep you in the loop and informed on what your credit union is working on day-to-day to further enhance your member experience and how we’re creating real change in the Southwest Louisiana community. Check out the first “State of Your Credit Union” message from CEO and President, Chad Miller!

January 2024

Member of SWLACU,

For me, the first few weeks of 2024 bring reflection on the past year. First and foremost, I must thank and show my deepest appreciation to the members, staff, and volunteers of Southwest Louisiana Credit Union for making 2023, our year of “growth”, an extremely successful one. My proudest moments consisted of: (1) Opening our South Beau Branch, where SWLACU continues to display our commitment to bring convenient and affordable financial services to members of our community that need it most. (2) Being awarded over $2 million in CDFI Grant Funding, which will impact our members for the next 5 years by allowing us to expand services while also granting a large portion of this funding directly back to members. (3) Eliminating several fees on member accounts, where again, we demonstrated our commitment to our mission of “Financial Empowerment for All” by evaluating what fees were putting undue financial burden on our members and eliminating or modifying those.

The year 2024 will come with its own unique challenges. We will have to overcome ever-changing economic challenges and understand how this not only affects our community, but our individual members. We plan to expand our financial counselling department and add new programs in 2024 that will allow us to meet more of our members where they are for appointments, or even conduct them virtually. We now serve over 18,000 members and our dedication is to continue to make strides to better serve you all in the environment that is most convenient for you.

Our goal for 2024 can be summed up in one word, IMPACT. I’ve challenged our team and volunteers to reflect on that word and truly think about how they will individually continue to impact our members and our community. As a credit union, we demonstrate our commitment to impact by pursuing and maintaining our Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) designation, which is only given to specialized financial institutions that provide financial services to low-income communities and to people who lack access to financing while demonstrating a primary mission of community development. SWLACU is the only financial institution headquartered in the Lake Charles area that has this designation, and I can’t wait to share how this will allow us to further positively impact you all in 2024.

In early 2024, you can expect much of the same from SWLACU, but with a deeper impact. In this first quarter you will see progress on the rebuilding of our Sulphur location, bringing much needed upgrades to the member experience at that location. Our McNeese Street Branch and W. 18th Street Branch will also see upgrades in the form of Smart ATMs that will allow members to transact more efficiently. Finally, stay tuned for important updates on how we plan on investing in our members that are in need of purchasing their first home or starting their own business.

On behalf of myself, the team at SWLACU, and the Board of Directors, I pray that 2024 is filled with positive impact personally, professionally, and spiritually for you all. Cheers to 2024, the year of impact!