CO-OP Deal Gets ENCORE

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – ENCORE Electronic Service Cooperative announced yesterday that its members overwhelmingly approved a merger of the regional electronic funds network for credit unions with CO-OP Financial Services. ENCORE, based in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Va., is owned by 124 area credit unions, including Apple FCU (Virginia), Navy FCU (Virginia), Pentagon FCU (Virginia), Congressional FCU (Washington), Fort Belvoir FCU (Virginia), White House FCU, and State Employees CU of Maryland. The deal cements the position of CO-OP as the largest credit union-owned electronic funds network, with more than 2,000 member credit unions and surcharge-free access to more than 25,000 ATMs. ENCORE has about 320 ATMs, most of them already available over the CO-OP, and a dozen shared branches it will add to the CO-OP Network, which already claims 1,850 CUs and 25,000 branded ATMs across the country.