BROCKTON, Mass. – Directors at HarborOne CU, New England’s second largest credit union, voted unanimously last night to put the issue of whether to convert to a state chartered cooperative savings bank to the credit union giant’s 180,000 members.
The bank bid by the $2 billion credit union—headed by Jim Blake, the past chairman of the Massachusetts CU League—would be the biggest conversion yet of a credit union. Another credit union giant, $1.5 billion Technology CU in California, is also converting charters.
Jim Rice, a spokesman for HarborOne, said this morning, last night’s vote marks the beginning of the process which will culminate in a member referendum.
“The approval to proceed is only the first step in a long process and any charter change must be approved by a vote of our members,” Rice told the Credit Union Journal this morning. “We are entering a regulatory “dark period” and will have no further comments until the membership votes.”
If successful in its conversion, HarborOne, the one-time Brockton CU, would be the biggest credit union ever to switch to a bank, far exceeding Minnesota's Think FCU, a former IBM employees credit union, and Community CU of Texas, both of $1.3 billion in assets when they converted.
