The largest credit union in Washington state is moving into the Spokane market next month.

Boeing Employees Credit Union is a million-member heavyweight with $15 billion in assets. It began in 1935 when a group of Boeing employees pooled money with the aim of making loans in the thick of the Great Depression to new workers who needed to buy tools for the job.

In Spokane, the credit union has about 5,000 members – many who worked at the former Boeing factory in Airway Heights along with retirees and people who moved from the Seattle area.

Its entry into Spokane arrives amid big changes in local banking.

Several local banks have been sold to larger regional lenders, including Umpqua and Columbia banks.

And the region’s leading credit union, Spokane Teachers Credit Union, has grown in size and scope of services.

Those changes, along with Spokane’s steady economic growth, better employment outlook and need for personal financial education, made the move a logical step, said Tom Berquist, BECU senior vice president.

BECU is now a leading car lender in the state and is positioned in Spokane to offer both consumer loans and focus on commercial loans in the $3 million to $5 million range.

Its local branches will be in the Cataldo Square shopping center at 916 N. Division St. in Spokane, and at 615 N. Sullivan Road in Spokane Valley.

And the credit union is hunting for a third location, said Steve Hauschild, a local banking veteran and BECU’s point person in Spokane.

BECU also runs an incoming call center in Spokane Valley that employs about 125 people.