Piedmont Advantage Credit Union picks up Fayetteville Postal in merger

Members of Fayetteville Postal Credit Union in Fayetteville, N.C., voted last week to approve a merger into Winston-Salem-based Piedmont Advantage Credit Union.

The deal is expected to expand the reach of $7.6 million-asset FPCU, which will keep its only branch open and become Piedmont Advantage’s 10^th location. Members are also expected to be gain to access additional products and services as a result of the transaction.

“While a merger may seem like an end, it is actually a new and exciting beginning,” FPCU Board Chairman Dorthy Schrecker said in a statement. “Fayetteville Postal Credit Union has been proudly serving its member owners since 1928, making it one of the oldest credit unions in North Carolina.”

Fayetteville Postal is the latest in a long string of postal credit union closures as institutions chartered to serve local postal workers are absorbed into larger credit unions or rebrand and convert to community charters. Earlier this year an upstate New York postal CU merged into CAP COM FCU and a similar Lansing, Mich.-based CU merged into LAFCU last year. A Shreveport, La.-area credit union’s 2018 rebranding was an attempt to signal its ability to serve consumers beyond just the postal service.

Officials at the National Council of Postal Credit Unions said last year they expect these trends to continue. The National Credit Union Administration lists just 66 active postal credit unions (including FPCU), though at one time that number exceeded 170.

Fayetteville Postal Credit Union recorded $11,551 in net income during the first three quarters of this year, a stark drop from the more than $63,000 it earned during the same period last year.