credit union type credit union industry financial services founded 1935 headquarters miramar florida united states area served broward miami dade palm beach and sarasota counties fl products savings ; checking ; consumer loans ; mortgages ; credit cards ; investments website tropicalfcu.org tropical financial credit union tcfu is a member owned credit union that was chartered in 1935 and is headquartered in miramar florida . tfcu is regulated under the authority of the national credit union administration ncua . contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 2 membership 3 services 4 awards 5 references 6 external links history edit beginnings edit southern bell later renamed bellsouth and now at & t organized the credit union in march 1935 with over 800 in deposits and over 400 in loans by the end of the second day . the credit union was chartered under the farm credit administration and was called the miami bell system employees federal credit union . the first board of directors meeting authorized the purchase of a cash box and rubber stamps not to cost more than 1.20 and 1.60 respectively . during that first year the first part time employee was hired at .30 an hour . by the end of the year assets had grown to 11 775 . in 1939 the name was changed to tropical telco federal credit union . the following year saw the credit union s assets grow to 100 000 . by 1947 assets had grown to 400 000 . katie vachon became general manager in 1956 when assets reached 2 million . the next year vachon joined the credit union s board of directors . in 1957 assets grew to 2.5 million and tropical telco moved into a new building on giralda avenue in coral gables and formed a credit union booster club . by 1965 assets had reached over 5 million . during this period the office was closed one day so employees could calculate and pay 5 % dividend to the share accounts . in 1968 assets of the credit union reached 10 million . during the 1970s tropical telco credit union s assets reached 54 million . in the mid seventies tropical telco began its trend to become a full service financial institution by expanding its services from share accounts savings accounts to share drafts checking accounts visa cards and atm services . in 1978 the phenomenal growth resulted in assets of 50 million . by 1979 tropical telco had evolved to practically a full service financial institution . tropical telco saw tremendous growth in the early 1980s . it was also a decade of major events impacting tropical telco s future as no other previous event . divestiture of the bell system which reduced its work force to cut costs also reduced tropical telco s growth in membership . interstate banking was permitted by the state of florida which increased competition among all financial institutions for our members deposits and loans . on august 1 1987 president greg blount joined the credit union . in 1989 tropical telco s board of directors approved the expansion of the field of membership to the first select employee group seg outside of the core bell system employee groups served . by the 1990s tropical telco s staff had grown to over 260 . the credit union had 10 locations over 80 000 members and approximately 400 million in assets . in 1995 tropical telco federal credit union celebrated its 60th anniversary and changed its name to tropical federal credit union . the credit union continued to add segs which today total more than 200 member companies . in july 2001 tropical federal credit union converted from a federally chartered to a state chartered credit union . as part of this charter conversion the credit union changed its name to tropical financial credit union . the state charter provided further expansion opportunities to include defined communities as well as continued seg growth . 1 in 2002 several programs were founded including miff member interaction feedback form tops tropical operations and proposal system and t cat tropical s community action team . in 2003 tropical financial cu expanded its branch network to in store environments . tfcu open branches in wal mart winn dixie and albertson s stores . with 10 new branches tfcu doubled the size of its branch network in 2004 . t pat tropical political action team was formed in response to on going political challenges posed to credit unions . member business services were introduced to provide service to members who operate small businesses . tfcu headquarters moved out of the miami branch building located in miami dade county to the town of miramar in broward county . the new location is in the miramar park of commerce . in 2005 tfcu became the first full service financial institution in the state of florida to receive the prestigious florida governors sterling award for organizational performance excellence . the credit union begins to market mass media channels including television and internet advertising . tfcu assets exceeded 700 million in 2007 . membership edit membership in tropical financial credit union is available to those who work or live in the following counties miami dade county broward county palm beach county sarasota county or in the following zip codes 33455 hobe sound 33458 jupiter 33469 tequesta 33477 jupiter tequesta east 33478 jupiter tequesta west over 200 companies in these counties also offer membership as a benefit to their employees . services edit tropical financial offers banking services such as free and high yield checking accounts high interest savings accounts low rates on loans retirement planning debt consolidation and refinancing small business services and free financial seminars . awards edit tropical financial credit union was awarded a 4 star rating with bauer financial inc. 2 as well as the governor s florida sterling award in 2005 . 3 references edit florida credit union seeking new expansions . credit union journal . 3 december 2001 . see bauer financial s credit union lookup ratings http www.bauerfinancial.com btc ratings.asp q cu retrieved 03 23 09 see previous recipients of the governor s sterling award 2005 http www.floridasterling.com performanceimprovement awardrecipients.html retrieved 03 23 09 external links edit tropical financial credit union website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title tropical financial credit union & oldid 729838157 categories credit unions based in floridacompanies established in 1935companies based in broward county floridamiramar florida navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add 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