The First National LGBTQ Credit Union Has Been Approved

Michigan this week approved the charter on the first credit union dedicated to serving the LGBTQ community nationwide.

Superbia Credit Union will be "[the] first financial institution solely dedicated to serve the LGBTQ community across the country," reports the Detroit Free Press. Founder Myles Meyers wrote in a LinkedIn post that he saw the need for such an institution after witnessing years of mistreatment of the LGBTQ community in the finance world.

"I was inspired to start Superbia by the sheer lack of needs and equal treatment of the LGBTQ being addressed and provided for in banking, insurance, healthcare and other fundamental services," he wrote.

"Obvious and harmful misses are the access to quality LGBTQ-designed products and the delivery of services within an affirming experience guaranteed to be free of intolerance and discrimination."

He said the credit union will help empower a community of 10 million to 15 million people and "unify our voice, the nearly $1.7 trillion in economic power and our extraordinary resilience, to our own full benefit and advantage."

Online services will be available in early 2020.

The Free Press noted regional credit unions have existed to serve an LGBTQ audience before. The Dallas Gay Alliance in 1988 opened a credit union to serve its own membership, for example. But Superbia will allow membership nationwide.

"Opening its virtual doors in early 2020, Superbia credit union is owned and guided by its members," reads a description on the credit union's website. "An inclusive organization, anyone in support of the LGBTQ affirming mission is welcomed to join and become a member."

Credit union officials declined to discuss the expected size of the institution or how many people it plans to employ.