SAN DIEGO-The integration of USA FCU's branches, members and employees into Navy FCU is "working out well," according to a Navy Federal spokesperson.
The merger of USA FCU into Navy Fed, announced Sept. 13 with Oct. 1 completion date, was complete with Oct. 4 as the first day of dual operations. Navy Federal has taken over all 19 of USA FCU's branches: eight in Southern California, and 11 military base branches in Japan and Korea. USA Fed's former headquarters building here is the new Navy Federal West Coast operations center.
Jennifer Sadler, PR manager for Navy FCU, told Credit Union Journal Navy Fed has established a special web page that is dedicated to the merger and designed to answer most frequently asked questions. Its phone center reps have also been trained.
Several details remain to be worked out, from the signage at branches to back-office functions. Sadler said the systems are not yet fully integrated, and the Navy/USA combined operation will run dual systems for the next few months. She said the plan is to have everything over on Navy Fed systems by the end of December.
Branch signage likewise is expected to bear the Navy Fed name by the end of the year.
Training Day
The combined credit union will have more than 200 branches worldwide, with 22 located in Southern California, more than $43 billion in assets and more than 3.5 million members. Sadler said the next step is continuing the ongoing training of employees of USA Fed.
"A lot of them are taking us up on the opportunity to come work for Navy Federal," she reported. "We have folks on site helping with the transition. We have a team of folks in Japan and have people on the way to Korea."
Prior to the merger, Navy Fed had 14 branches in Southern California and 300,000 members in San Diego. Sadler said Navy was "very well established" in the area, which is why the merger "made sense" for the CU giant.
"We have a large member population there, and a branch network there is a benefit to members. We did not previously have branches in Korea, so that is a benefit to us. We opened our field of membership to the entire Department of Defense a couple years ago, so this gives us an opportunity to serve Army and Air Force folks in Japan and Korea."
According to Sadler, the staff at USA FCU has been very welcoming and very excited. She said there is "excitement on both sides because it is a win-win."
USA Fed previously had an event at the San Diego Zoo the weekend of Oct. 9-10 that will serve as Navy Fed's public welcoming party. Sadler said management thought it was a good opportunity to tell members how they can do business with Navy Fed, "so we are partnering with USA Fed on the event."
"The cooperation we are getting has been phenomenal," she added.
