Official flag of the State of Louisiana. (Source: Shutterstock)

Officials with the Baton Rouge, La.-based BRECO Federal Credit Union announced Thursday that the credit union increased its field of membership to include a vast and underserved area that includes more than 400,000 potential members.

The $53 million BRECO, which currently serves 5,113 members, received approval from the NCUA recently to expand its FOM to several locations in and around the Baton Rouge area. According to BRECO, the credit union may offer its services to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school, as well as businesses, in the following locations: Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana Parishes in Louisiana.

“There are so many with limited access to financial services,” Joshua Poole, president/CEO of BRECO, said. “We are thrilled for the opportunity to build lifelong relationships as we focus on the financial success of the people and communities we serve.”

According to a 2019 survey conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the unbanked population in the U.S., Louisiana ranks 49th with 11.4% of the population classified as unbanked. Mississippi ranks 50th with an unbanked population of 12.8%, whereas New Hampshire ranks first with an unbanked population of 0.5%.

BRECO was chartered in 1934 by a group of utility employees from the Baton Rouge Electric Company.