Jax Metro, part of Self-Help Credit Union, rebrands and expands while focusing on increasing loan access

Jax Metro, part of Self-Help Credit Union, rebrands and expands while focusing on increasing loan access (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — First Coast-based Jax Metro Credit Union is expanding and rebranding, building on its acquisition by Self-Help Credit Union a few years ago.

The credit union, which was founded in 1935 to serve utility and port workers, was acquired in 2017 by North Carolina-based Self-Help Credit Union.

That gave the institution the wherewithal to expand: In March, it opened a branch in the River City Marketplace, near the airport. Director of Business Development Tom Larson said the credit union will continue to roll out the Self-Help brand throughout the rest of 2021, including a formal grand opening event for the branch in October 2021.

Jax Metro, which operates as a division of Self-Help, is slowly rebranding, looking to minimize the confusion for its members, about half of which are JEA employees.

Its other focus: making lending more equitable.

Jax Metro is one of two Community Development Financial Institution-certified credit unions active on the First Coast. CDFI certification is a designation given by the U.S. Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund to organizations that provide financial services in low-income communities and to people who lack access to financing.

121 Financial Credit Union, headquartered in Jacksonville, is the other CDFI institution active in the area.

Larson said the issue of lending inequality is largely a systemic issue — one that propelled the credit union, which has about $53 million in local assets, to issue 1,250 home loans in 2020.

“We believe that the best way for families to develop wealth is to be a homeowner,” he said.

“(They need) to have their financial story represented: where they are and where they want to go,” Larson said. “We’ve got to be able to help people represent (those stories) across their lines of business, across operational elements of their business and capital investment opportunities.”

Educating those businesses on the Paycheck Protection Program Loans was also something Larson said was crucial in Jacksonville. Jax Metro issued 60 loans across the First Coast as part of the PPP program, helped businesses across the area keep 20,000 jobs.

Logo courtesy of Jax Metro Credit Union