Summit Credit Union

Established in 1935, Summit Credit Union is a member-owned financial cooperative. Summit holds $7.8 billion in assets and has more than 270,740 members and 979 employees across 58 locations throughout Wisconsin. Since 2002, Kim Sponem has been CEO & President of Summit Credit Union, formerly known as CUNA Credit Union/Great Wisconsin Credit Union.

Summit Credit Union

Summit Credit Union Logo
Company type	Credit union
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1935
Headquarters	Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, USA
Key people	Kim Sponem (CEO)[1]
Total assets	$7.5 billion USD[2]
Number of employees	954[3]
Website	summitcreditunion.com

Summit Credit Union in Milwaukee

In 2025, Summit was recognized for continued excellence in employee engagement as a Top Workplace USA by USA Today for the fifth consecutive year and a Top Workplace in the Madison area by the Wisconsin State Journal six years in a row. This marks the third straight year The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has named Summit a Top Workplace in Milwaukee. Summit was also named to Forbes list of America’s Best-In-State Credit Unions 2024, as well as one of America’s Best Credit Unions by Newsweek. Additionally, and representative of its focus on financial education, Summit received the Governor’s Financial Literacy Award in 2010, 2014 and 2016 and the Governor’s Financial Literacy Award – Legacy in 2019.

History

Kim Sponem, CEO & President of Summit Credit Union, has been a credit union CEO for more than 20 years, including the top job when Summit was named Great Wisconsin Credit Union and, originally, CUNA Credit Union.^[4]

CUNA, Inc. founded CUNA Credit Union, known today as Summit Credit Union, on September 17, 1935 in Madison, Wisconsin to serve the credit union movement and anyone else who was in need of credit union services. This unique charter was granted by the Wisconsin bank commissioner in 1935.^[5]

The first location was in its sponsor company, in the Filene House. Credit union movement pioneers and organizers Thomas Doig and Roy Bergengren were early advocates for the formation of CUNA Credit Union to ensure all people everywhere had access to credit union membership. Back then, employees of a credit union could not borrow from their credit union. The credit union was there to ensure that employees could still receive their product needs from a credit union and that state leagues across the country had access to a credit union for their banking needs.^[6]

Shortly after establishing this credit union, CUNA Mutual was formed to provide insurances and other services to credit unions and became one of its sponsor groups in addition to CUNA, Inc. The credit union expanded to other credit union entities as they were created, including World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), Credit Union Executive Society (CUES) and Filene and expanded to serve anyone, anywhere.

In 2005, CUNA Credit Union changed its name to Great Wisconsin Credit Union (GWCU) and then, in 2008, changed its name to Summit Credit Union, merging in the former Summit Credit Union, formerly State Capitol Employees Credit Union, maintaining CUNA/Great Wisconsin's original charter and field of membership.^{[7][8][9][10]}

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