After months of planning, the core systems of Mendo Lake Credit Union and Community First Credit Union will be melded together over the weekend, with all aspects slated to be ready to go on Monday, July 31.
On Thursday, Mendo Lake CU was advising its members that online and mobile banking will be offline from Friday evening through Monday morning.
The two CUs officially merged on July 1 to create a combined institution that has a loan portfolio of $312.5 million, deposits of $414.2 million and assets of $457.7 million. It will serve 50,777 members through 10 branches in Lake, Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma counties in Northern California.
The ongoing name will be Community First Credit Union, although the entity will retain Mendo Lake CU’s charter, since MLCU is a CDFI credit union.
Prior to the merger, Mendo Lake CU had $240 million in assets and was headquartered in Ukiah, Calif. It had four branches. Community First CU had $212 million in assets, was based in Santa Rosa, Calif., and had six branches.
Todd Sheffield, CEO of Community First CU, will be CEO of the new organization, which will keep its headquarters in Santa Rosa.
The two CUs noted there were no layoffs as a result of their merger. The new credit union is looking to hire 10 additional employees, mostly in its mortgage lending unit.
“For the members and employees of the two credit unions, this is a match made in heaven,” Sheffield said in a statement. “We took the ‘best of’ approach to loan products, services, rates and fees. If it was better at Mendo Lake, we added it. If it was better at Community First, we kept it. Members should really like what they get.”
For members of the former Mendo Lake CU, officials touted new account offerings and a technology upgrade, including a new checking account that earns them money when they swipe their debit card, a 0% loan for local agriculture students, second mortgages, in-house technology for remote deposits and deposit rates that nearly double. Members of the previous version of Community First CU now will get access to a suite of credit cards, manufactured home loans, checking and savings accounts for those re-entering banking, and an “advantageous rate bump” on share certificates.
In addition to benefits to the members, Sheffield said the merger makes for a “stronger, more financially sustainable” credit union with the “wherewithal to implement better and broader technological conveniences for our membership” due to economies of scale.
Both credit unions were founded by local teachers: Mendo Lake in 1958; Community First in 1961.
For full-year 2016 Mendo Lake CU reported $693,691 in net income. Its net worth ratio as of Dec. 31, 2016 was 7.56 percent (“well capitalized”).
In 2016 Community First CU reported $1,776,121 in net income. Its net worth ratio as of Dec. 31, 2016 was 9.54 percent (“well capitalized”).
