As Credit Union History Month draws to a close, Credit Union of Texas CEO Eric Pointer shares with CUSO Magazine a little about how his credit union started, and how that history has shaped the credit union’s identity to this day.
CUSO Magazine: How was CUTX founded, and how has its heritage shaped its identity?
Eric Pointer: Credit Union of Texas was founded in 1931 by a group of Dallas teachers in the middle of the Great Depression. They started with just $65. Their purpose was simple: help fellow educators get affordable loans so they could take care of their families during a very hard time. People helping people, when it mattered most.
CUTX CEO Eric Pointer
Nearly 100 years later, we’ve grown to more than $2.7 billion in assets, but that purpose hasn’t changed. We were built to put people before profits, and we still do. We listen to our members, we work to improve their financial well-being, and we invest in the communities we serve. Our members have never been account numbers to us — they’re family. That isn’t something we adopted along the way. It’s who we’ve been from the first day.
Why is maintaining strong relationships with local school districts and educators such an important part of CUTX’s mission today?
Among the most influential professions, teaching stands at or near the top. An elementary school teacher who spends 40 years in the classroom, guiding an average of 25 children each year, directly shapes the minds and character of a thousand young people during their most impressionable years. In doing so, teachers hold a profound and lasting influence on the course of human history and the future we all share.
Education is where our story starts, so investing in schools is the most natural thing we do. Today, we partner with more than 100 schools across North and East Texas, and those relationships help us understand and serve students, teachers and families better.
Our SMART Branch program is the clearest example. These are student-run, full-service branches inside schools, where students learn saving, budgeting and financial responsibility by doing the actual work. They gain confidence. They discover career paths in financial services they may never have considered. Teaching is even written into our creed — the T in CUTX — and there is no better place to live that out than a school. We launched the program five years ago and have expanded it across multiple districts because we’ve seen what it does for students. Nearly a century on, we’re still doing the work our founders started: investing in educators and in the next generation.
How has CUTX balanced honoring its nearly century-long heritage while continuing to evolve to meet the needs of today’s members and communities?
Honoring our heritage doesn’t mean standing still. It means staying true to our purpose while finding new ways to serve.
It starts with listening. Our members tell us what they need, and our job is to understand it and then act on it. Todos Unidos came directly out of that. Our Hispanic members told us they wanted a more personal banking experience in their own language, so we launched the first dedicated Spanish-language banking service offered by a credit union in Dallas-Fort Worth. We’ve expanded into underserved communities. We’ve embraced technology that makes banking simpler and more accessible.
Looking forward and embracing change is how we do what we do. The tools will keep changing. The purpose won’t.
As CUTX looks toward its 100th anniversary, what aspects of its founding mission do you hope will continue defining the organization for the next century?
We will never lose sight of why we exist. Our founders believed a financial institution should improve people’s lives, not simply provide financial services. That belief still guides every decision we make.
Our Community Engagement model is how we put it into practice. We listen to our members and our communities, then take meaningful action across five focus areas: education, suburban homelessness, women and children in crisis, food insecurity and the special needs community. Those are the places we believe we can make the greatest difference.
Continuing the mission also means continuing to evolve. As our members’ needs change, we have to explore new ideas and build solutions that make banking more accessible and more meaningful — and we should aim to exceed what anyone expects from a financial institution. If we keep listening first and serving with purpose, CUTX will be just as relevant in its next century as it has been in this one.
What do you hope today’s members understand about the values and purpose that have guided CUTX for nearly 100 years?
Our purpose has always been bigger than banking. Since 1931, we’ve been in the business of helping people achieve financial success and making the communities we serve stronger.
That shows up well beyond our branches. We’ve invested millions of dollars in local communities. We partner with schools and nonprofit organizations across North and East Texas. Our team has given thousands of volunteer hours to causes that matter. And we’ve stayed focused on the people who deserve to be served well — emerging families, educators, first responders, veterans and underserved communities.
If members take one thing from that, I hope it’s this: we’re interested, not interesting. Our attention belongs on them, not on us. That was true for our founders, and it’s true today.
How do you ensure that employees understand and embrace the mission and values that have guided CUTX since its founding?
It starts with culture. From day one, every new employee learns why CUTX exists and that our purpose goes beyond banking — that every interaction is a chance to make a real difference in someone’s life.
Then we give them room to live it out. Our employees have the tools and the support they need to take care of members and show up in their communities, through volunteerism, community engagement and the everyday work of serving people well. We also work hard and have a good time doing it, and I think our members can feel that.
The other piece is growing our own leaders. A few years ago, we asked ourselves a simple question: when a leadership role opens up, are we looking outside for someone who has to learn our culture, or inside to someone who already lives it? That’s why we built Pathways — a structured development program that gives employees a clear route into leadership, starting with our branch managers. It’s how we make sure the values that have defined CUTX for nearly a century are carried forward by people who already believe in them.
When our people stay connected to the mission and keep growing, our members and our communities are the ones who benefit.
