SAN DIEGO – North Island Credit Union is expanding its presence in north San Diego County and southern Riverside County.
The credit union opened its 12th location across the broader Riverside and San Diego County region this month, with executives cutting the ribbon outside the full-service branch in Murrieta that marks North Island’s return to the area for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
“We already have about 5,000 members that live out there, but it’s not convenient to serve them, obviously, if they need a brick-and-mortar outlet,” said North Island Credit Union President and CEO Steve O’Connell. “So we’ve always wanted to re-evaluate that when we knew the time was right.”
The old Murrieta branch was one of the last the credit union opened prior to the financial crisis and the Great Recession and the first to close when North Island downsized at that time.
O’Connell argued re-establishing a presence in the Murrieta/Temecula area was “low-hanging fruit” as far as the credit union’s growth was concerned and affirmed North Island’s commitment to serving north San Diego County and Riverside County.
Prior to Murrieta, North Island previously opened its most recent branch in Escondido in 2024.
“This is greatly complementing that corridor as we grow into those areas,” O’Connell said. “That particular area – Temecula and Murrieta – is one of the fastest-growing areas in southern California, which is in alignment with our strategies.”
Focus on Local Communities
North Island Credit Union has been in operation since 1940, when it was known as Naval Air Station San Diego Federal Credit Union.
It later merged with California Credit Union in 2017 to form a larger entity operating across Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and San Bernardino counties as California Credit Union and across Riverside and San Diego counties as North Island Credit Union.
While O’Connell acknowledged the market for financial services providers like banks and credit unions is fairly saturated in north San Diego County and southern Riverside County, he estimated that the credit union would benefit from its existing presence of members in the area.
“All the markets that we’ve moved into, we typically have an existing presence, whether that’s with existing memberships or partnerships in the community,” he said. “So we already have a presence out there, both with elected officials and local community partners.”
North Island Credit Union generally views large banks as its biggest competitors because of their lack of focus on local communities, according to O’Connell, meaning they aren’t present at events like street fairs and farmers markets.
“There’s a huge gap that’s been created in local communities, and local opportunities for partnerships have kind of dried up for some of our community foundation partners,” he said. “So I think what we’ve found at California Credit Union (and) North Island, we’ve leaned into that.”
North Island Credit Union main goal is to serve regular banking customers rather than high-net-worth individuals, according to O’Connell, resulting in a business model dependent on both digital banking and brick-and-mortar locations.
California Credit Union as a whole manages assets of more than $5 billion and counts more than 200,000 members as well as 26 retail branches.
“We’re a relationship-driven business. … We serve communities and those of modest means, and that’s where we see the vacuum’s kind of grown a bit, and we’re trying to fill some of those gaps,” O’Connell said.
North Island Credit Union
FOUNDED: 1940 (as Naval Air Station San Diego Federal Credit Union)
PRESIDENT AND CEO: Steve O’Connell
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Nonprofit financial services provider
EMPLOYEES: Around 550 (across California Credit Union as a whole)
WEBSITE: northisland.ccu.com
CONTACT: [email protected]
NOTABLE: North Island Credit Union and California Credit Union merged in 2017, with Cali-fornia Credit Union operating across Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and San Bernardino counties while NICU operates in Riverside and San Diego counties.
Eli is an award-winning reporter primarily covering the tech and life sciences industries. He previously worked as the San Diego City Hall reporter for the regional wire City News Service. He has also covered public health, transportation and state and local politics in the San Francisco Bay Area for Local News Matters, the nonprofit arm of the regional wire Bay City News Service, where he also oversaw the development and daily content management of the outlet’s public health and COVID-19 news and resource webpage. He is also a contributing writer covering Minor League Baseball for the analysis and commentary website Baseball Prospectus. Eli is a graduate of San Francisco State University and a native of Northern California.
