Established in 1953, Valley Credit Union, then called San Jose Telephone Employees Credit Union, was originally chartered to serve the area's rapidly growing community of telephone employees. From the very beginning, we've been guided by a philosophy that puts people first, focusing on exceptional member service. Through the pure dedication of the original staff, the credit union continued to grow. In 1974, the name was changed to Telco Credit Union, and in 1984, the name was again changed to Valley Credit Union.

Valley Credit Union's first branch was located in Campbell at 70 West Hamilton Avenue. As the years progressed, the credit union continued to grow by serving the employees of select employer groups of various industry types throughout the Bay Area. As our membership base continued to expand, we opened additional branch locations to serve our members in Oakland, San Jose, and Sunnyvale.

In addition to the credit union's growth by sponsor companies, we also experienced much of our growth by merging with other credit unions. In the 80's, we merged with Singtran, Wesun, PPMC, Smith Federal Credit Unions, and Buddhist Church Credit Union. In the 90's, we merged with Westinghouse and Blue Shield Credit Unions.

High Tech Banking
In the 80's, Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) became the banking wave of the future and we installed our first ATM in Campbell in 1986. Today we have 7 Valley Credit Union ATMs and thousands of surcharge-free ATMs available to our members within the CO-OP Network.

In the 90's, banking on the web rapidly became the fastest growing method of account access, and in 1995, Valley Credit Union started offering its web-based banking solution: Online Banking. In 1996 Valley launched its website - www.valleycu.org. Today, Online Banking is as important to our members as our traditional Member Centers and Contact Center. The same technology that drives our Online Banking platform now powers our latest account access innovation: Valley Mobile Banking.  This convenient banking solution allows our member to access their accounts through a secure, downloadable cell phone application, or by visiting valleycu.mobi from any cellular phone with a web browser.

Who we are today
After over a half-century of serving members and their families, on December 31, 2008 Valley Credit Union joined the Citizens Equity First Credit Union (CEFCU) family, one of the largest credit unions in the nation, to become Valley Credit Union, a division of CEFCU.  CEFCU, founded in 1937 to serve employees of Caterpillar, is one of America’s largest community-based credit unions serving more than 250,000 members in 50 states and several foreign countries with over $4 billion in assets.

Valley Credit Union, a division of CEFCU, has Member Centers located in Santa Clara and San Jose, and serves over 20,000 members and over 300 Select Employee Groups (SEGs). Membership is open to all who live, work, or worship in Santa Clara, Alameda, or Contra Costa counties.

CEFCU serves 260,000 members through 19 Central Illinois Member Centers; Valley Credit Union, a division of CEFCU, an Illinois Chartered Credit Union; the CEFCU Financial Center; the Money Center 24 ATM Network; CEFCU’s Web site, www.cefcu.com; and cefcu.mobi.