With summer in full swing, I hope you and your family are able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. It’s hard to believe we’re already half way through 2010. Thus far, it’s been a great year for General Electric Credit Union (GECU) and our members; we’ve continued to make great strides in the tough economy and have made several announcements regarding changes, enhancements, and introductions to our products and services to make your GECU experience even better.

Like the rest of the country, we’re looking forward to positive changes in the economy. In early June, Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, said the nation’s economic recovery is likely to continue at a moderate pace before picking up next year. As well, he suggested that interest rates likely will remain low for quite some time.¹ We understand the hardships many of you have faced and continue to look for ways to help. We have kept our loan rates low, have had some of the best deposit rates in the area, and introduced promotions, such as our current $0 Closing Costs 1^st Mortgage Offer, to help you keep more money in your pocket.

One of our most exciting announcements has been the introduction of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). We have been studying HSAs and their growth in the financial industry, and combined our research with listening to you, our members, on your needs and concerns with these types of accounts. After thorough planning, we were pleased to make these accounts available to you to help you and your family save for medical purposes on a tax-advantaged basis. These accounts can help offset high deductibles and co-pays due to the rising cost of health insurance and an unfortunate decrease in coverage by many employers. For more information about our HSAs, please click here.

We are also pleased to introduce the new look of our periodic statements this month. We have given them a "fresher" look that will allow you to more quickly peruse your statement to better gauge your overall financial standing. While we are excited to unveil the new look of our paper statements, we want to encourage you to utilize our FREE E-Statement service. With the continual rise in identity theft, our E-Statement service is one of the many ways you can protect yourself. And, we are very pleased with our new enhancement for E-Statement users... you are now able to access 12 months of statement history! This enhancement makes it easier to keep track of your finances and serves as a great tool when having to review past account information. For more details about the redesign of our periodic statements and our E-Statement service, please see the "Welcome to Our New Statement Look" article on Page 1 of July's Bright Horizons newsletter.

These are just a few of the enhancements that have been made this year; we invite you to read about some of our other changes in July's Bright Horizons newsletter from our ATM and Debit Card Processing and enhancements to our Web BillPay service. As we move into the second half of 2010, we look forward to continuing to serve your financial needs and strive to find new ways to enhance the benefits of GECU membership. As always, I thank you for your continued trust and support. Have a safe and happy summer!