PenFed Looks to Expand in Puerto Rico

PenFed Credit Union, the second largest federal credit union in the United States, is investing nearly $3 million to expand its San Patricio branch in Guaynabo and establish an adjacent call center to provide service to its Puerto Rico and stateside members.

Long-term plans call for more branches on the island, where demand for the cooperative’s loan and deposit products, particularly automobile financing, is booming.

The Virginia-based financial institution, established in 1935 as the Pentagon Federal Credit Union, has become the fastest growing credit union on the island since it arrived in 2006 upon absorbing the Fort Buchanan Credit Union.

With just four island branches, PenFed has surpassed the largest locally based credit union, the 14-branch Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito (CooPACA), in members and business volume. The federal credit union has 250,000 members on the island, or more than double that of CooPACA, and has a local portfolio of about $1 billion in loans and some $1.4 billion in deposits.

Local PenFed members constitute more than 12 percent of the credit union’s 2.1 million members. The institution’s main branch is in Guaynabo’s San Patricio Village, close to its Fort Buchanan branch. The other two are in Hatillo and Ponce.

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