Ken McCarthy

The National Credit Union Administration issued only one prohibition order in March, barring Ashley Davis, a former employee of an institution in New Jersey.

The proposed combination of Vermont State Employees Credit Union and New England Federal Credit Union would create a $3 billion-asset institution. Some past leaders worry that the deal will erase one institution's local touch.

Susan Romero, who was chief executive of Winslow Santa Fe Credit Union, has been sentenced to 26 months and ordered to pay nearly $2.4 million in restitution.

Credit unions with less than $100 million of assets are seeing their loans and membership counts shrink. M&A may be the only option for such institutions, which run on skeleton crews and have few options for cutting costs.

Farmers National Banc Corp. in Canfield has agreed to buy Emclaire Financial in neighboring western Pennsylvania — its first move across state lines.

Municipal is one of two credit unions to be released from conservatorship this year. It's no small feat — the last time it happened was in 2016 — but the National Credit Union Administration may have a hard time preventing other troubled institutions from being shuttered or acquired.

The deal for Horizon Community Bank in Arizona is the fifth instance of a credit union agreeing to buy a bank this year, and the second such deal for the Phoenix credit union, which bought Pinnacle Bank in 2019.

Citing customers’ increased adoption of digital services over the past two years, banks are shrinking their physical presence, while also renovating the locations they keep — but credit unions are bucking the trend.

The Augusta, Maine, credit union has promoted its executive vice president, Stephen Wallace, to succeed H. Tucker Cole, who plans to retire in June.

Here is a rundown of the regulatory, diversity, competitive and other challenges that executives explored at the Credit Union National Association's annual gathering in Washington.