Anabela Pereira likes to tell people that she was born in the lobby of a credit union and raised on the teller line.
Pereira, president and CEO of the Pioneer Valley Federal Credit Union, has been working in the credit union realm for the last 27 years.
That experience has instilled in Pereira a commitment to promoting financial wellness and literacy among the union’s members. Recently, that commitment has led the credit union president to create new loan programs allowing people with bad credit to build their credit back up through zero percent loans that are reported to credit bureaus.
Pereira, who has worked just about every position at Pioneer, supports the credit union movement by lobbying on both the state and national levels. She is the chairperson of the legislative committee for the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the state Credit Union League and serves on various credit union organizations and committees. Once a year she heads to Washington, D.C., to lobby congressmen and talk about the challenges credit unions face, Pereira offered.
“It’s a very fulfilling job because I have the capability of enriching our member’s lives every day in different ways,” she said. “The board has given me the authority to come up with new benefits to help people. We have four financial coaches to help members budget their finances.”
Pioneer Valley, the nation’s second oldest postal credit union, offers financial literacy counseling at local colleges for undergraduates who might be inexperienced at balancing their own finances.
“It’s one of the core fundamentals for our credit union,” Pereira opined. “We are here to provide financial education and help our members and others better their lives down with financial literacy. Pioneer gave me the opportunity to learn every aspect and facet of each department. Even as CEO, I was able to get a Master’s degree and work full time as well. It’s very important that you give back to the community.”
Her hard work has benefited the credit union, as well. When Pereira started in 1985, the credit union had $2 million in assets and 900 members. Today, the credit union has more than $40 million in assets, with approximately 6,000 members.
