Bellco Credit Union was founded right here in Colorado in 1936. That means this year we’re celebrating 90 years of serving our members and our Colorado communities. Here are some more details about our humble beginnings and some of the highlights throughout the decades.

The Beginning of Bellco

Bellco Credit Union was officially founded on April 27, 1936, by our first 12 members who were all employees of Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph. It was one of the first credit unions founded in Colorado and had our headquarters in the basement of the Mountain States Telephone Building at 931 14^th Street in downtown Denver.

Growth and Evolution

By the end of 1964, Bellco grew from our initial 12 to 5,253 members strong. It was during the 60s that Bellco made the idea of “member service first” a major focus to all employees  and remains one of our most important core values today. By embracing this commitment to our members and being willing to adapt to new technologies such as ATMs, Bellco continued to surge in growth to more than 88,000 members in 1991. It was during that period that Bellco officially moved our corporate offices to our current headquarters in Greenwood Village. The 90s also brought two major milestones as 1995 saw the launch of Bellco’s Internet Banking through Bellco.org and 1996 was the year Bellco surpassed 100,000 members served. By the time 2000 came, Bellco had grown to $1 billion in assets. The 2000s also saw the beginning of our sponsorship of the Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade (2006) and our first version of Mobile Banking (2008). The 2010s included the introduction of our official “Banking for Everyone” tagline, continued commitment and support of local charities such as the Food Bank of the Rockies, our sponsorship with the Denver Art Museum to provide all youth aged 18 and under free admission, and by the end of the decade, over 300,000 members and over $5 billion in assets.

Bellco’s Present and Future

Today, Bellco serves over 368,000 members and has dozens of branches supporting Colorado communities all over the state. Through it all, we’ve always made sure we kept a member first focus while providing the latest technology, competitive financial services, and unwavering stability. We’re proud to have been founded in Colorado and have called it our home since the beginning. We continue to welcome new members every day and have plans to keep expanding our branch network even further to give all our members even more convenient access and support. There have been many changes throughout the local banking industry over the years. Yet after 90 years, we remain proud to call Colorado home and are looking forward to continuing to serve our members and our local Colorado communities.

To say thank you to all our current members for their support over the last 90 years and for our future members, we’re offering some great limited time offers. You can see the full details at Bellco.org/90Years. Bellco is federally insured by NCUA.