Warner Robins-based Robins Federal Credit Union to change name in January

The name of a Middle Georgia financial institution is going to change for the first time in its 61-year history.

On Jan. 1, Warner Robins-based Robins Federal Credit Union will change to Robins Financial Credit Union, said President/CEO John Rhea.

The credit union received its federal charter in 1954, and at the time it served mostly civilian employees and commissioned officers of the Air Force who worked at Robins Air Force Base.

The credit union opened its membership over the years to other groups of people, and it now open to anyone who lives, works or worships in 16 Middle Georgia counties. But it kept its federal charter.

"Over the years it was fine, but as we continued to grow, the federal charter is more restrictive in what we are able to do to expand," Rhea said. "The state charter is more flexible and allows some additional expansion opportunities for us. With the federal charter we were limited to the areas and the counties we currently serve. We were not able to add anything additional."

Because it will no longer have a federal charter, it must remove the word "federal" from its name, he said.

While the credit union will be able to expand into new geographic areas with the new charter, the company doesn't have specific plans to do that at this time, Rhea said.

All its members have been notified of the name change.

The name change will not affect members' accounts in any way, he said. When members deplete their current supply of checks, additional orders will include the new name. But all account numbers and routing numbers will remain the same.

Because the initials of the company will not change, it will be able to keep its website address and all employee email names will remain the same, said Dee Dee Cote, senior vice president and chief administrative officer.

"The sign change will be the most noticeable for our members," she said. "The signs will start being changed out on Monday, Jan. 4. We will start in Houston County and branch out. We should have all the building signs changed in about two weeks barring any issues or weather delays."

To contact writer Linda S. Morris, call 744-4223, or follow her on Twitter @MidGaBiz.

History of the credit union

In February 1954, a group of 13 Robins Air Force Base civilian and military personnel signed the application for a charter for Robins Federal Credit Union. It was set up mostly for "civilian employees and commissioned officers of the Department of the Air Force who worked at or had headquarters at Robins Air Force Base."

The charter was approved in March, and on April 1, 1954, Robins Federal Credit Union was officially born.

Other Milestones:

* 1960s

Passed the $1 million mark in assets.

First full-service credit union branch office was opened on RAFB.

* 1970s

Became one of the first credit unions in the world to operate its own in-house, real-time computer.

* 1980s

Merger of Peach County Federal Credit Union into RFCU.

Opened membership to the boards of education for Peach, Taylor, Macon counties and faculty of Fort Valley State College.

Opened office in Macon.

* 1990s

ATM cards gave access to accounts from anywhere in the world.

Employees of Blue Bird Corp. were included in field of membership.

In 1996, the 100,000th member joined the credit union.

Opened offices in Warner Robins and Perry.

* 2000s

In January 2000, changed to a community charter to offer services to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in 16 counties in Middle Georgia.

Opened new locations in Gray, Warner Robins, Milledgeville, Macon, McRae, Fort Valley and Athens.

Launched mobile banking.

* 2010s

New locations opened in Milledgeville, Forsyth and Macon.

Name to change to Robins Financial Credit Union on Jan. 1, 2016.

Source: Robins Federal Credit Union.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Warner Robins-based Robins Federal Credit Union to change name in January ."