Sunshine State Credit Union in Tallahassee, Fla., will try a second time to convert to a mutual savings bank, officials said last week.
The $180 million-asset credit union submitted a conversion application to the Office of Thrift Supervision almost two years ago and won broad approval from its membership, but it was forced to withdraw its application last year after it fired its longtime chief executive officer, Mark LeCain.
Lou Davis, who had headed the $1.8 billion-asset First Bank of Florida in West Palm Beach before it was sold in 1998, succeeded Mr. LeCain.
This year Sunshine State's management told members that the credit union intended to pursue a conversion. The reason, according to a source involved in the process, is that the credit union's field of membership is limited to state employees. Under Florida law, the credit union would require a simple majority vote of its members to proceed with the conversion.
Sunshine State is the second credit union in recent weeks to announce plans to convert to a thrift charter. The other is the $340 million-asset Lafayette Federal Credit Union in Kensington, Md.
