PEORIA, Ill. – Citizens Equity First CU, Illinois’ second biggest credit union, announced yesterday it is entering the California market by acquiring Valley CU, the one-time $305 million credit union taken over by NCUA two months ago.
Valley, which now has around $200 million in assets, reported $6.9 million in losses for 2007 and followed that up with $8.9 million in losses for the first three quarters of the year, before the NCUA takeover.
Valley serves most of the region known as Silicon Valley as part of a three-county territory that includes Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties.
CEFCU, with $3.6 billion in assets, kicked the tires of other California failures in recent months but refrained from completing a deal because of large losses at those institutions.
The Valley deal follows other recent acquisitions of failed California credit unions, including Cal State 9 CU, Sterlent CU and Kaiperm FCU. Last week E1 Financial CU, a troubled privately insured California credit union, agreed to be acquired.
