Growth strategies

With the holiday season in full swing, a number of credit unions are making their communities a bit brighter.

A 2017 holiday shopping growth strategy worked so well for the $4.1 billion-asset institution that management decided to hit the mall again this year.

A big splash by Fifth Third, a bid by WSFS to reinvent itself and some bold long-distance expansions highlighted a year where deal activity held steady but premiums rose.

The combination of CCF Holding, Heritage Bancorp. and Providence Bank will create a $1 billion-asset institution. Veteran bank investor Kenneth Lehman will be its chairman.

Earlier this year CUNA announced a new push to better educate consumers about credit unions. The Northwest Credit Union Association is asking its members to contribute to the effort.

Student loan debt — now at $1.5 trillion in the U.S. — is arguably the greatest pain point for consumers in their 20s and 30s. To court that demographic, banks are increasingly offering help with refinancing and repayment.

Stock Yards will remove a competitor in Louisville, Ky., and enter two markets outside of the city.

In the last two years, the Georgia-based institution has returned $25 million to members.

Colony will also gain a loan production office in Atlanta when the transaction closes.

The two institutions had to change their names after a law passed in the Hawkeye State that forbid CUs from using a state university in their names.