ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said yesterday it approved another 21 mergers last month, ten of them involving credit unions over $400 million and six of them involving $1 billion institutions, continuing a trend of the largest credit unions gobbling the small and troubled ones.
Six of the mergers involved a billion-dollar credit union. Landmark CU, Wisconsin’s largest credit union with $1.3 billion in assets agreed to two deals, Lifetime CU, a troubled $32 million credit union, and Wiscor CU, a $16 million credit union with poor management.
Growing numbers of large credit unions are agreeing to mergers as regulators are shopping troubled institutions. Since the first of the year almost half of all mergers have involved a credit union over $400 million, 20 billion-dollar credit unions involved.
Other billion-dollar credit unions making acquisitions are: The Golden 1 CU (U.S. First FCU); Teachers FCU (Unicorp FCU); Rockland CU (Norwood School Employees FCU) and Space Coast CU (Eastern Financial Florida CU).
Other large credit unions also agreed to deals: Southland CU, Downey, Calif.; Sound CU, Tacoma, Wash.; The Summit FCU, Rochester, N.Y. and Empower FCU, Syracuse, N.Y.
