Committed to Helping Our Community
The Canton School Employees Federal Credit Union (CSE) is a member-owned financial cooperative committed to helping all people within our community achieve financial strength by providing sound financial products, outstanding service and financial education. CSE was founded in 1938 and has always been locally owned and operated. The credit union has over 48,000 members and over $380 million in assets. Membership is open to all those who live, work (or regularly conduct business), worship, volunteer, or attend school in Stark, Summit, Portage, Tuscarawas, and Carroll Counties. We may also provide financial services to businesses within these counties. This credit union is federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration.
Find details about a CSE membership by clicking on the button below.
Community Collaboration
Our current slogan is ‘Bank Local’. That’s not just a catchy marketing ploy, it’s how we live out our commitment to our communities. We pride ourselves on helping everyone – from those who are financially stable to the underserved and unbanked members of our community. We are out impacting lives in our community not only through sponsorships of local establishments and events but in the way that our financial products and services impact members’ lives.
For many years, our tagline read, “Committed to Service and Education.” While you may not see that in our logo anymore, those words still reflect our founders as well as our current leadership’s philosophy. We believe that by living up to this statement, we are offering our members so much more than just a place to cash a check.
Our goal is to make banking easy. We truly believe that there is no reason "banking" should be difficult. We do our very best to make sure you have a good experience and that we have made banking with us... CSEasy!
CSE Federal Credit Union has not only made a commitment to provide outstanding financial services to the people of our community, but also to support the community and its projects. We are humbled to have been recognized for our work in the community by the Ohio Credit Union League in bestowing us with The Dora Maxwell Award for our social involvement, and the Louise Herring Award for Philosophy in Action. In 2012, we also received the Desjardins Adult Financial Education Award from the Ohio Credit Union League for our work with the Stark County Urban League. We have also been awarded the Diversity Intiative Award by Coming Together Stark County and have been honored to have received a number of other merits and awards recognizing our commitment to Stark County.
Listed below are just a few of the community organizations and events CSE has supported:
- Akron Children’s Hospital
- Relay for Life
- Community Blood Program
- WHBC's Kids Fest
- Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival
- City of Canton’s Bicentennial
- Light-Up Downtown
- Coats for Christmas
- Books for Kids
- Junior Achievement
- Habitat for Humanity
- Adult Education for Canton City Schools
- Stark County High School Sports
- Faces of Stark County
- Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority
- Stark County Hunger Task Force
- Long Haul for Hunger
- American Red Cross
- Stark County Urban League
- Ohio Credit Union’s Marching Miles
- MS Walk for Life
- Wishes Can Happen
- Be A Better Me Foundation
- Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
- Compassion Delivered
- Akron Canton Foodbank
- Coming Together Stark County
- Salvation Army
CSE History
The Canton School Employees Federal Credit Union, now known as CSE was founded in 1938. The credit union was founded by forward-thinking individuals who believed that by joining together they could provide common people, just like themselves, sound financial services at reasonable costs. From humble beginnings with a ledger book, cigar box, and a teacher’s desk drawer, the credit union began to grow. The same principle that inspired our founders in 1938 is the same philosophy that governs how we do business today.
CSE started out serving the employees of Canton City Schools. We soon added the employees of North Canton City Schools, Malone University, Stark State College, and the Stark County District Library. In the early ‘80s the employees of the Canton Christian Home joined. After the passage of H.R. 1151 (The Credit Union Membership Access Act) in 1998, membership began to grow rapidly.
From its modest beginning, the credit union has grown substantially. It has been strengthened over the years by the loyal support of its members. In 2003, we were honored when the National Credit Union Administration granted CSE a Community Charter. With the new charter, we can make credit union membership available to people throughout Stark County. This is especially beneficial in helping to fulfill our plan of serving the underserved within our community.
In 2023, CSE submitted an application to expand our Field of Membership, and in March of 2024, we were officially approved by the NCUA to expand access to CSE for those all those who live, work (or regularly conduct business), worship, volunteer, or attend school in Stark, Summit, Portage, Tuscarawas, and Carroll Counties.
It's the credit union model that common people pool their resources together to provide sound, reasonably priced financial services for themselves and other members. At CSE Federal Credit Union it is an idea that works!
CSE Today
CSE continues to be member-owned and operated, unlike most of the banks in our area. The headquarters of CSE is located at 1380 Market Avenue North in Canton, which also serves as our operations center. In addition, we have offices located in North Canton (6879 Whipple Ave. N.W.), Lake Cable (5414 Fulton Dr. N.W.) and Meyers Lake (1235 Whipple Ave N.W.).
CSE was named Ohio's #1 Credit Union in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Forbes.
CSE was also named to the first ever list of 'America's Best Credit Unions' by Newsweek in 2024.