MIRAMAR, Fla. – Long-time members of Eastern Financial Florida CU will see a new name when they go to their branch Monday morning as the venerable credit union is disappearing into Space Coast CU.
Space Coast converted signage at Eastern’s 19 branches and the credit union’s data processing system over the weekend, marking the end for the one-time $2.4 billion credit union, a victim of Florida’s real estate bust.
The merger, the biggest in credit union history, created a $3.2 billion institution based in Melbourne, Fla., about an hour-and-a-half north of Eastern’s Miami base.
Eastern Financial was chartered in 1937 to serve employees of Eastern Airlines, then retooled in 1991 after the liquidation of the failed airline to serve more than 1,500 select groups and nine surrounding counties. But in recent years it ran afoul of the state's soured real estate market, lending millions to several ill-fated residential developments and investing in what would become a failed exotic mortgage-backed security known as a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO. For 2008 it reported a whopping $113.5-million loss, the second biggest ever for a natural person credit union.
Space Coast CU was chartered in 1951 as Patrick Air Force Base CU, serving employees of the space program. It now serves eight surrounding counties.
