The 2026 fiscal year-end results have been reviewed by the State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Board of Directors, and there is much to celebrate!
Financially, your cooperative had a terrific year, with assets up over 6.7% from the previous year, coming in on June 30th at just under $60 billion. SECU saw good growth in deposits, up over $3.2 billion, and loans were also up 5.6% over the previous year – an indication that SECU’s move to offer an enhanced pricing structure to benefit all members has been well-received. We finished the year with net income of nearly $437 million, up from the previous year’s earnings of $283 million. Higher earnings were mostly attributed to strong loan interest income, repositioning some investments to bring in a higher yield for our portfolio, and the incredible SECU team keeping overall expenses down. The increase in expenses from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026 was just under 1%! What a testament to our employees’ desire to be good stewards of your dollars.
Financial results were complemented by growth in member numbers as well. 126,424 new members joined State Employees’ Credit Union in fiscal year 2026 and we eclipsed 3 million members in early July! Celebrations of the 3-million milestone started in March within our branch network and are continuing at SECU.
There were also numerous enhancements at your Credit Union in the past fiscal year. Installations of digital display boards in branches were completed, and replacement of the aging SECU CashPoints® ATMs is underway, ensuring that SECU’s brand is prominently displayed on each new machine. While not widely publicized, SECU resumed offering a car buying service for the convenience of members who are car shopping. In the past fiscal year, SECU also signed the contract for a multi-year core replacement project and work is well underway. Perhaps however, the largest enhancements for members were delivered in June 2026 with the rollout of the new SECU Member Access and BillPay systems. More than 1.5 million members are now logging in to new Member Access! Newly offered budgeting tools are available to help members understand their spending, set up and manage financial goals, and create budgets. And given our closely connected membership, which often includes families and co-workers, our members can now send money to each other using Member-to-Member transfers. Think of this as an alternative to Zelle® or Venmo® payments between our members!
Enhancements to our digital options are aimed at helping us serve you in the manner which you want to be served. Our 8,000+ team members do a stellar job of serving SECU members via 275 branches, over 1,000 ATMs, 24/7/365 Member Services Support, ASK SECU, and now through updated Member Access! Offerings at SECU also extend beyond standard financial services to include investment and brokerage options via Credit Union Investment Services and SECU Brokerage Services, insurance services including life insurance products through SECU Life Insurance Company, Trust and Estate Planning Services, and property management through SECU*RE – an SECU wholly-owned subsidiary that maintains an inventory of over 2,000 rentals in North Carolina.
At SECU, helping members enhance the quality of their financial lives isn’t just part of our mission statement. Our team members put that into practice by delivering competitive rates on products, low fees (on average just $16 per member/year), improved financial advisory services, and financial education classes/initiatives for not only youth, but members and non-members of all ages in our great state! The People Helping People® philosophy of credit unions also resonates through school supply drives, toy drives, summer camp scholarships, and the countless community fundraising efforts of our team and our volunteers! Nearly 3,000 Advisory Board members volunteer in local branches across the state to help make a difference in their communities, representing SECU by listening to fellow members or showing their support by attending SECU Foundation service events. Your Foundation, funded by the contributions of SECU members, has now provided a collective financial commitment of over $350 million for initiatives to benefit North Carolinians statewide!
Which brings me back to 3 million members! That doesn’t happen by accident. It’s proof that the power of a financial cooperative resonates with North Carolina’s state employees and your families. It’s also a result of listening and engaging with members, of being your trusted provider, of delivering services without commissions or bonuses in our compensation structure. And it is a direct result of your volunteer Board of Directors keeping members at the center of everything that they do strategically, guiding our team as we deliver for you as members now and into the future. If your families are not yet members of SECU, we welcome the opportunity to show them the benefits of membership! Let’s keep celebrating!
