Collaboration

Small CUs frequently see merger as the best chance for providing members a viable, vibrant credit union for the foreseeable future, but some experts suggest there's a better way.

Though Catholic credit unions face many of the same challenges others do, they also must contend with some concerns that are specific to serving a religious organization, which is what pushed 11 credit unions that all serve Catholic churches to band together.

Florida Credit Unions Shared Services announced a $602,776 patronage rebate and dividend to its participating CUs and stockholders in 2015.

The idea of allowing a merged credit union to maintain its identity as a "division" of a network CU is interesting, but small CUs should look to CUSOs and their trade groups for resources that would allow them to remain independent, according to former NCUA Board Chairman Michael Fryzel.

With its cooperative history, the credit union industry needs to coordinate efforts to win key legislative and regulatory battles ahead.

The League of Southeastern Credit Unions & Affiliates (LSCU) and the New York Credit Union Association (NYCUA) on Tuesday said they have signed a letter of intent to combine many of their operations into a jointly owned subsidiary that will house all of their back office functions.

CO-OP Shared Branch has overtaken Bank of America in number of branches, and now is the third-largest network of financial institution branches in the United States, according to data drawn from the FDIC.

WyHy Federal Credit Union and Western Vista Federal Credit Union have formed a managing CUSO known as UProsper Services Group, LLC, which they said will allow the CUs to collaborate as equal partners on a number of joint ventures.