CHERRY HILL – A Long Island-based credit union has expanded into New Jersey with a new office here.

Bethpage Federal Credit Union, a financial cooperative founded in 1941, now has 35 offices.

It’s also eyeing the Connecticut market, an executive said last September in announcing plans to open four offices in New York and the South Jersey branch by mid-2024.

“Branch expansion throughout the tri-state area is a major part of our growth strategy,” said LindaArmyn, the credit union’s president and CEO

Bethpage described the Cherry Hill office as “a significant milestone” for its plans.

The expansion comes as deposits are growing for federally insured credit unions, a regulator says.

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But the sector also is consolidating, with a downward trend for the overall number of the financial cooperatives, according to the National Credit Union Association.

It says assets in federally insured credit unions last year rose by $88 billion, or 4 percent, to a year-end total of $2.26 trillion.

However, the number of federally insured credit unions fell to 4,604 in last year’s fourth quarter. That was down from 4,760 a year earlier.

“The year-over-year decline is consistent with long-running industry consolidation trends,” says the NCUA, which insures deposits up to $250,000 per individual depositor.

Bethpage, the largest credit union in the Northeast, has doubled its assets over the past seven years, records show.

It had assets of $12.86 billion at year-end 2023, up from $6.2 billion in 2016.

The credit union was founded in 1941 for employees of an aircraft manufacturer in Bethpage, New York. But it’s now open to any customer with a $5 membership account, a spokesperson noted.

Bethpage had almost 460,000 members at the end of last year. That compared to about 277,500 members in 2016.

In a statement, Bethpage noted it belongs to a nationwide network that offers access to customers’ accounts via more than 30,000 free ATMs and 5,000-plus shared branches.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.