Members of IBM CU Giant Think Better of Bank Charter

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Members of Think FCU, founded to serve employees of IBM Corp., last night approved the conversion of the $1.2 billion credit union to mutual savings bank, one of the largest credit union conversion yet. About 51% of the 24,000 voting members favored the charter switch. The credit union said 30% of the 82,600 eligible members participated in the vote. Almost 200 members showed up for last night’s special meeting culminating the 90-day ballot, with 67 of those members casting their votes at the meeting, a non-controversial one-hour affair held at the Mayo Civic Center. The switch to bank represents a major evolution for the state’s second largest credit union, chartered in 1960 as IBM Mid America Employees FCU. Over the past decade the credit union, like two dozen others founded around the computer giant, have changed membership bases, merged or switched identities; one is now known as Coastal FCU, another as Amplify FCU, another is Visions FCU, and still another is Meriwest CU. But the Minnesota credit union has clung to its heritage, changing its name in 2003 to Think FCU to reflect the admonition of IBM founder Thomas Watson and invoke the IBM laptop computer, known as the ThinkPad. Tom Floyd, a spokesman for the credit union, told The Credit Union Journal last night, plans do not call for selling stock in the thrift. The vote must now be certified by NCUA. The credit union is the third largest, behind $1.4 billion Community CU and $1.3 billion OmniAmerican CU, to convert to mutual savings bank.