HAVERHILL, Mass. – In requiring Northeast Community CU to conduct the vote on its merger into nearby Haverhill Bank a second time, the NCUA Board will leave the final decision to the agency’s Region One office.
Members of the $98 million credit union voted unanimously during a special meeting last September to combine with the $160 million bank, but only an estimated 75 of the credit union’s 10,000 members took part.
Credit union officials have agreed to redo the vote under NCUA’s rule for converting to a mutual savings bank, thus requiring mail disclosures/mail ballots 30 and 90 days prior to a special meeting, according to Michael Hanson, an attorney representing the credit union. Hanson, who also is working with Community CU of Lynn, Mass., to convert to a mutual savings bank, said Northeast Community agreed with NCUA to apply the agency’s conversion rules to the transaction, which is not specifically outlined in NCUA rules and regulations. “NCUA has been very cooperative,” he told The Credit Union Journal yesterday.
“Obviously, if the members don’t want it, they won’t vote for it. If it makes sense they will,” he said.
