Tech CU Wins Two CUNA Awards: Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility and Desjardins Adult Financial Education

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - August 30, 2016) - Tech CU (Technology Credit Union) today announced that it has won two CUNA awards: First place in the Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Community Service category and second place for the Desjardins Adult Financial Education award. Additionally, the International Finance Awards named Tech CU as Credit Union of the Year in the United States.

A prestigious CUNA honor, the Dora Maxwell award recognized Tech CU for its work with the Family Giving Tree. During this past holiday season, Tech CU worked closely with the charity to fulfill children's' exact holiday gift wishes -- helping families unable to purchase presents for their kids. Tech CU was ultimately able to fulfill more than 1,250 holiday wishes due to the generosity of its employees, members and "Honor Roll" program (each new account opened in December fulfilled one child's holiday wish through a donation from Tech CU).

"The Bay Area ranks as one of the world's most affluent areas, yet more than 800,000 residents are living at or below the poverty line, with one out of every four children living in poverty. This means that many in our community can't afford to provide toys and books to their children during the holiday season or for school," said Janikke Klem, VP of Community Relations at Tech CU. "At Tech CU, we believe that we have a social responsibility to help improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve. We do this by partnering with great organizations and donating both time and money."

The CUNA Desjardins award recognized Tech CU for its work aimed at educating both members and nonmembers in financial literacy, including:

• A partnership with WANDA -- supports financial literacy programs for single moms in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Partnership with City Year -- trains their AmeriCorps members on the importance of saving and smart credit card usage; and Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits -- provides financial education to those who are working in and for the community.
• Partnership with SavvyMoney -- provides educational videos from nationally-known financial expert Jean Chatzky, along with access to a free credit score and credit monitoring.
• A website offering a variety of articles, calculators and resources to help answer commonly-asked questions on everything from credit and debt, to applying for a mortgage.
• Free seminars on topics ranging from estate planning to investing.
• Global Members -- designed to assist individuals new to the country/workforce establish credit.

"There are many financial literacy resources out there, but it can be hard to know whom to trust. At Tech CU, we provide unbiased informative advice that our members can use with confidence," said Kate Duggan, SVP of Marketing. "If a particular topic isn't covered on our web site, members can come into any branch and have questions answered, use our interactive touchscreens or attend one of our many seminars."

Lastly, Tech CU was recognized as the Credit Union of the Year - USA by the International Finance Awards (IFA).

"There were a number of components that went into the IFA award win," said Todd Harris, CEO of Tech CU. "We were honored for becoming the first credit union in the country to offer asset-based lending as well as some of our recent technology upgrades like our website redesign, omni-channel innovation, branch redesign and our updated retail merchandising. We also won for our compelling advertising campaign which asks customers to consider breaking up with their big bank, in favor of a bank that has their best interests at heart."

"Tech CU has a strong commitment to the community and enriching the lives of its members," added Harris. "We want to make sure that people can come to Tech CU to get the financial advice they need or find relevant information on our website. We also want to make sure we're giving back to communities we serve via volunteer work and things like Family Giving Tree. Since 2007, Tech CU has invested more than $1.3 million in Bay Area communities."

ABOUT TECHNOLOGY CREDIT UNION

Tech CU (www.techcu.com) is a $2 billion credit union serving more than 75,000 members throughout the San Francisco Bay Area -- including employees of such companies as Tesla, eBay, Applied Materials, Nvidia and Facebook. A federally insured, not-for-profit organization, we put the financial interests of our members ahead of shareholder profit by helping members achieve their financial goals on their terms and by sharing the benefits of our growth. Founded in 1960 by a group of forward-thinking employees at Fairchild Semiconductor, today we continue to be an industry leader, providing innovative financial products for all stages of our members' lives, including personal banking, wealth management, private banking, commercial lending and business banking. Tech CU consistently achieves high marks for its customer satisfaction and maintains a 5-star rating from Bauer Financial, the nation's largest independent rating service for financial institutions. And, with mobile and online banking, 65,000+ surcharge-free ATMs worldwide (more than Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo combined) and convenient branch access to our financial experts, Tech CU makes 24/7 banking easy and empowering.