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Alterna Savings
Type	Credit Union
Founded	Ottawa, Ontario, 1908; Toronto, Ontario, 1949
Headquarters	Ottawa / Toronto
Key people	Gary Seveny - President & CEO
Industry	Financial Institution
Products	Financial services
Employees	500
Website	http://www.alterna.ca/

Alterna Savings & Credit Union Ltd. is a Canadian credit union formed in 2005 with the merger of CS CO-OP and Metro Credit Union.

At the close of 2006 Alterna Savings had $1.7 billion in assets and approximately 150,000 members. It had 24 branches in Ottawa, Toronto, Kingston, North Bay and Pembroke. It also provides service across Canada through its subsidiary, Alterna Bank.

Alterna Savings is one of a new generation of credit unions with the scale and presence to be seen as real alternatives to the mainstream banks. Others in Ontario include Meridian, FirstOntarioand Northern credit unions.

History

CS CO-OP: The Civil Service Savings and Loan Society, launched in 1908 with the assistance of Alphonse Desjardins was the first credit union in Canada outside Quebec. Federal civil servants were prompted by an article in their magazine The Civilian, when it reported on loan sharks charging civil servants up to 200% for payday loans. After the Government of Ontario passed a credit union law in 1928, the Ottawa-based institution was re-chartered as the Civil Service Co-operative Credit Society (CS CO-OP). Although it has always been one of the largest credit unions in Ontario, it never joined Credit Union Central of Ontario.

Metro Credit Union: Metro CU was incorporated in August 1949 as the University of Toronto Employees' Credit Union. Over the years it absorbed a variety of smaller credit unions, primarily ones that served universities, colleges or hospitals. It became a community bond credit union, open to all residents of Toronto, in 1994.

Recent Events

Both CS CO-OP and Metro CU were active participants in the negotiations of 12 credit unions across the country for a national co-operative bank in 1998. Though these negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful, they opened a door for CS CO-OP, under the leadership of Gary Seveny, to secure a bank charter for its subsidiary CS Alterna Bank ('Alterna Bank'). The new bank was launched in October 2000 to offer service across Canada.

Gary H. Gillam, a visionary leader of the credit union until his untimely death in 1993, shaped Metro Credit Union's reputation as a pioneer in social responsibility. The credit union operates a micro-loan fund for disadvantaged Toronto entrepreneurs, and was one of the first financial institutions in Canada to perform regular social audits.

References

Ron Kenyon. To the Credit of the People, The Ontario Credit Union League Ltd., 1976.

Memberships:

• Credit Union Central of Ontario
• Interac
• The Exchange
• MasterCard
• Cirrus Network
• Maestro
• Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario
• Laser Cash
• Co-op Network

• Official credit union site
• Site of subsidiary Alterna Bank