Southern Idaho-based Idaho Central Credit Union has just one modest branch in North Idaho, but the credit union has big growth plans there, just as it’s enjoying consistent strong performance across the financial cooperative, says Coeur d’Alene branch manager Emily Haas.

ICCU opened its first North Idaho branch last June and already is planning branches in Post Falls and Hayden.

“We knew if we came into North Idaho, we didn’t want to do just one branch,” Haas says.

The Post Falls branch will be located just east of the Columbia Bank branch at 3235 E. Mullan.

Pocatello-based ICCU spokeswoman Laura Smith says the 4,800-square-foot facility will include a two-lane drive-thru and an ATM. “The plan is to start construction in June and open in November, but we may be open sooner than that,” Smith says.

J. Addington General Contractors Inc., of Coeur d’Alene, will be the contractor on the project.

Smith says ICCU also plans to construct a branch in Hayden, at the southeast corner of Government Way and Honeysuckle Avenue, although the credit union hasn’t scheduled a timeframe for that project yet.

ICCU’s Coeur d’Alene branch is located at 1410 N. Government Way, the former site of the lone branch of Public Employees Credit Union of Coeur d’Alene, which ICCU acquired last June.

Public Employees Credit Union had $8.8 million in assets and 1,800 members at the time of the acquisition.

“I think people were nervous,” Haas says of the acquisition. “It was important that we got to know Public Employee Credit Union members while offering them more products and services.”

As members of ICCU, former Public Employee Credit Union members now earn higher interest on savings accounts and certificates of deposit, and their debit cards now work all over the world and online, Haas says.

ICCU earlier this month was rated as the best-performing credit union in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive year by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The ranking was based on a number of metrics, including member growth, market growth, and asset quality, among credit unions with more than $500 million in total assets and a net worth ratio of at least 7 percent.

ICCU’s net worth ratio was 8.3 percent as of Dec. 31. The net worth ratio is a measure of total assets divided by the total of earnings and reserves.

Spokane Valley-based Horizon Credit Union and Liberty Lake-based Spokane Teachers Credit Union were ranked 31st and 37th, respectively, on S&P Global’s list of 50 best-performing credit unions.

Tukwila, Wash.-based Boeing Employees Credit Union, which is expanding in the Spokane area, was ranked highly at 16th in the U.S.

In total, Idaho Central Credit Union has 26 branches and more than 680 employees.

The credit union had 220,000 members as of Feb. 29, an increase of 17.6 percent compared with year-earlier membership.

ICCU had $2.4 billion in assets as of Feb. 29, an increase of 25.4 percent compared with year-earlier assets.

The credit union had $2.2 billion in loans, and $2 billion in deposits, up 27 percent and 20 percent, respectively, compared with year-earlier dollar amounts.

Haas says the credit union’s strong growth largely has been organic, rather than through acquisitions and mergers.

“I think it’s our culture,” she says of reasons for the strong growth. “Our focus is getting into the community and volunteering as much as we can so everybody knows the Green Team. That’s how we refer to ourselves here in the community.”

Since arriving in the community, ICCU has sponsored the Coeur d’Alene July 4th fireworks show and the Coeur d’Alene Marathon. It also has entered its popular Green Team Jeeps in community parades throughout Kootenai and Shoshone counties.

The credit union has been rated as the best large company to work for in Idaho for three consecutive years, according to a survey of employees of participating companies conducted by Boise-based research and marketing firm Populus, Haas says. She adds that ICCU is in the running for a fourth such designation, which will be announced this month.

ICCU has seven employees at the Coeur d’Alene branch, and Haas says she expects the Post Falls and Hayden branches each will have a similar number of employees. ICCU also has six off-site loan, mortgage, and business-development officers serving members in Kootenai and Shoshone counties.

“We do mortgages,” Haas says. “We hired two mortgage officers to help up here, and they’re busy now, too.”

The credit union retains some of the mortgages it originates and sells some of them on the secondary market, she says.

ICCU also works with auto dealerships to provide car loans through indirect lending, in which dealers originate loans and the credit union underwrites, services, and insures them, she says.

ICCU already has seen a lot of growth in business customers in Kootenai and Shoshone counties, Haas says.

“We’ve already met our semi-annual goals for business loans,” she claims.

Some new members hadn’t realized that credit unions can offer business services, Haas says.

“We’re not set up to handle huge businesses, but we can help smaller businesses and save them money,” she asserts.

Haas says she’ll celebrate her 10-year anniversary with ICCU in October.

She started her ICCU career as a teller two weeks before her 19th birthday, and she’s earned promotions to loan officer and assistant manager over the years before moving up from Boise to be the Coeur d’Alene branch manager.

The assistant branch manager, Chantel Koho, hails from Nampa.

ICCU was founded in 1940 to serve officers of other Idaho credit unions who weren’t allowed at the time to join credit unions they worked for.

Today, members can be anyone who lives or works in 36 of Idaho’s 44 counties, including Kootenai and Shoshone counties in North Idaho; public employees throughout Idaho; credit union employees throughout Idaho; and families of members.