MANCHESTER, N.H.–2023 will be remembered for many things, including the loss of hundreds of credit unions, just as was the case in 2022, 2021, 2020 and….
But before their names are forgotten, their histories at best stored on a server somewhere, with perhaps some yellowed paper records set aside in a box or maybe framed in the board room—CUToday.info is publishing here the names of many of those credit unions that for the most part voluntarily opted to merge out of existence this year.
CUToday.info is the only publication that publishes a full review of the merger disclosure forms NCUA requires credit unions to provide to their members, and the messages shared can often be confounding and sad, hopeful and upbeat, wistful and nostalgic.
Like pages out of American history, some of the credit unions that are disappearing take with them the names of industries that have come and gone, fields of membership that are fields no more.
Launched With Excitement, But…
All of the credit unions that either ceased operations in 2023 or which soon plan to do so no doubt launched with excitement and hope, some with champagne toasts and ribbon cuttings, no doubt, and certainly at least one with the mythical cigar box as the “safe.”
A few are/were nearly a century old, and many survived a depression, recessions, wars, huge technology shifts, gyrating rates, de-regulation and over-regulation, before finally saying in 2023 they could no longer go it alone.
A Host of Reasons
This year CUToday.info’s reporting found credit unions seeking to merge, citing limited assets, shuttered sponsors and data processing costs.
Many CU chairman and managers who signed off on merger disclosure forms offered some version of this statement to their members: “As a small credit union, we are finding it increasingly difficult to survive.”
Another frequent refrain is a lack of succession planning for both management and boards—including boards lamenting they had not done a good job of recruiting new members.
In many other cases, we found CUs with net worth ratios north of 30% or even 40% saying they lacked technology, while never explaining why they chose not to reinvest some of that capital into things as simple as websites.
No Return of Members’ Money
In numerous other cases, many of the high-capital credit unions reported they would not be paying anything out to members (in some cases for often perplexing reasons) and instead gifting it to the continuing credit union (one CU had $4,400 in capital per member and offered no payout).
In one case, we found a near $800-million Florida credit union that was not offering a bonus or rebate of any kind to members as part of a merger, but it did set aside millions of dollars for five members of the management team.
Below, you will find a listing of the credit unions that filed disclosure forms with NCUA this year and which are merging out (please note it is not a complete list and does not include CUs that did not file or are not required to file such disclosures).
You can find CUToday.info’s full reports on mergers during 2023 at the links, below, which reflect the dates they were published:
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