Merger Mania: CU Giants Gobble Up the Small

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA reported Friday it approved 29 mergers last month, including an unusual number of huge credit unions acquiring much smaller ones, five involving billion-dollar credit unions. That included: Eastern Financial Florida FCU ($2.3 billion) acquiring Omni Community FCU ($50 million); Landmark CU ($1 billion) acquiring Belle City CU ($4 million); Kinecta FCU ($3.5 billion) acquiring Santa Monica School Employees CU ($9 million) Mountain America FCU ($2.1 billion) acquiring S.P. Sparks Employees FCU ($24 million) and GTE FCU acquiring Louisiana Association of Educators FCU ($1.4 million). Last month’s mergers claimed another 17 small credit union under $5 million in assets, a total of 47 of which have been merged out of existence so far this year. Increasing numbers of billion-dollar credit unions are turning to mergers to fuel growth, with 20 approved for mergers over the past six months.