Black Sorority Opens First-Of-Its-Kind ‘FMO’ Credit Union

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc members recently participated in a special ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The organization held a grand opening for its new “For Members Only” (FMO) credit union. The ribbon-cutting occurred at the organization’s corporate headquarters in Chicago, ahead of the 2023 Leadership Seminar.

“FMO is the first Black-owned, women-led, sorority-based digital banking financial institution in the history of the United States, and some of our Sisters even signed up on-site!” the organization wrote on Instagram.

ABC7 reported that the 115-year-old sorority initiated plans for the credit union a few years ago, focusing on efforts to generate economic and financial stability for women of color. “Everyone doesn’t understand the impact we make financially, so you have to start doing things so folks know we know how to control our money,” Danette Anthony Reed, international president and CEO of AKA Sorority, told the outlet.

Throughout its first year of operations, members of FMO will have access to primary savings, loans, and other banking services. “We want to invest in what we own,” said FMO board member Deardra Hayes-Whigham.

“It’s just awesome to know we’ll have the opportunity to actually do something financial,” AKA sorority member Monica Teal said.

FMO will serve members of the AKA sorority and their immediate families. Additionally, those who work for the credit union and the organization will be granted access to the credit union’s services. According to Terri Bradford Eason, FMO federal credit union executive director, “Every member will be an owner of the credit union.” FMO is chartered, regulated, and insured by the National Credit Union Administration.

The women of the AKA sorority have been hard at work creating new establishments on behalf of the organization. As previously reported by BLACK ENTERPRISE, the Gamma Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Society and the sorority’s nonprofit, Ivy Alliance Foundation, announced a collaboration to transform the former St. Louis home of the sorority’s founder, Ethel Hedgemon Lyle, into a museum. A land dedication for the 12,000-square-foot community center took place in December 2022.