For over 87 years, Empeople has been a proud partner in helping our members achieve their financial goals. As we look forward, we have a vision for growth that builds on this legacy with an even stronger focus on financial empowerment for our members.

It is important that our brand reflect our path forward. One that honors our history and represents a strong future. With a legacy of service and a vision for growth, our focus is on creating a path to financial health for our members, their families, and the communities we serve.

This is an exciting time for our credit union. Your membership is valued, and we hope you are as excited as we are for the future and the many opportunities it holds. Thank you for your continued trust and partnership.

What will not change:

We will continue to serve the same membership
You can continue to write checks and use your debit card or credit cards
We remain federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration

Introducing...Empeople.

Empower + People =

Frequently Asked Questions:

Over the years, our field of membership has evolved beyond Deere Employees.  We have been working with the Brand Team at John Deere over the last three years to try to maintain Deere branding within the Deere field of membership, but based on our growth beyond Deere, the request was made for the credit union to proceed with a name change.

As with any business, the purpose of growth is to ensure that we have a healthy and growing balance sheet (both loans and deposits) and continue to offer great rates and service delivery to our members.  This has been very successful for the credit union, and we are financially sound as a result.

This is an exciting time for our credit union. Your membership is valued, and we hope you are as excited as we are for the future and the many opportunities it holds. Thank you for your continued trust and partnership.

No, as stated in the FAQ above, we have been discussing and considering a name change for the past three years.  The timing with the current banking environment is strictly coincidental.

The external environment is certainly causing questions, but you should feel very confident in the safety and soundness of the credit union for the following reasons:

  • Our member deposits are insured by the National Credit Union Administration (ncua.gov). If you have questions about your specific accounts and balances, please give us a call.
  • We receive the highest examination ratings from both the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (our regulator), and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), our federal deposit insurer.
  • We are rated a “Well-Capitalized” credit union by both the State of Illinois and the NCUA.
  • We maintain a very strong liquidity position and maintain multiple liquidity sources should the need arise.
  • We invest in loans for you, our members. We don’t invest in things, such as Crypto-Currency, that may be trendy but likely risky.
  • 100% of our past-due loans are covered in our loan-loss provision.
  • 8 out 10 members recommend us to their friends, coworkers, and family

Yes, your funds are fully insured by the National Credit Union Administration, a division of the US Government, with deposits insured up to at least $250,000 per individual depositor.

Yes. We have a great partnership with John Deere and we will remain onsite at Deere locations with both our offices and ATMs.

The name change is really an outcome of our membership growth. We need to keep growing in order to provide great rates and state-of-the-art delivery to our members.

The name change does NOT impact our field of membership. We will continue to have the same criteria/requirements for new members.

Besides the name change, it has no impact on your membership. Once a member, always a member. Your member number and account number(s) will remain the same. There will be no impact to you as a member.

Yes. We have a plan to reissue cards at their natural reissue date.

The name change will not impact how we currently do business in our branches. Our digital delivery business model will continue to evolve (educating members, self-service) and we will focus on financial wellness/empowerment.

Your Member number (account number) will remain the same.

There will be no change to routing numbers at this time.  We will communicate if a change is necessary in the future.

Our new name will eventually replace our former name on the credit report.  This change will not show as a new listing and will not impact your credit score.