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The first branch of the Lee Family Credit Unions began as the personal concept and goal of a local Washingtonian, KL Lee. He, along with a handful of local Chinatown leaders, initiated, guided, and pushed the idea of a Credit Union run by and for Lee family members. The historical and cultural basis that drove the founding of such a "strange idea" as a credit union is based in the traditional Chinese concept of family obligation and the common bond of helping each other. The idea that no matter what happens, one can always depend upon one’s family to help and to provide both moral and financial support over difficult times.
KL Lee sold life insurance to local Chinese immigrant families and understood the importance of investing
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in the future and being prepared for hard times. He felt a credit union was an excellent way to assimilate the Chinese natural tendency toward thriftiness into the Western cultural concept of a regulated financial institution, and to encourage Lees just arriving into the United States to invest and save for not only their retirement, but for the education of the younger generation growing up as Chinese Americans.
In the 1940's and 50's there was little opportunity for a newly arrived immigrant who had little English to have opportunities to deal with American financial institutions or to establish trust for such places. So, why not develop a Credit Union for the Lee family? It supported the traditional concept of families helping its members; it provided its investors a legal assurance that the money they put into the credit
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