St. Anthony of Padua Federal Credit Union opened its doors in May 1953 in a small office space donated by the Silva family across the street from where St. Anthony of Padua Church now stands. The credit union was started by several businessmen from the parish because there was a need for the parishioners to have a place to go for loans and a place to save there hard earned money.
In May of 1970 our charter was amended to include the parishioners of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Parish. This church is just three blocks away from the credit union and the directors saw the need for our credit union to help these parishioners with their financial needs. As the credit union grew so did the need for more office space. The directors bought a lot of land and built a new and much larger office building with a drive-up window to accommodate the growing needs of our membership. This new building opened in 1979. In 1998 the inside of the building was completely re-modeled to make better use of the existing space. Now, we just needed a little more land for more parking space and an additional drive-up window. In 1998 we purchased the land and house behind the credit union to ad 10 more parking spaces and the much needed second drive-up window.
Through the years our membership has grown and our services have also increased to keep up with member demands. As word spread about our services and friendly staff we had been asked by many people outside of our area how they could join the credit union. This prompted us to apply for expansion of our field of membership once again. In April 2001 the National Credit Union Administration agreed to approve the credit union’s request to convert to a community charter serving persons who live, work worship, or attend school in Fall River, or the towns of Somerset, Swansea, Westport, or Freetown Massachusetts, or the towns of Tiverton, or Little Compton, Rhode Island.
