The Golden 1 CU adds 11 counties with a potential 5.3 million members

SACRAMENTO - Large community expansions in the credit union industry are becoming the norm rather than the exception. The Golden 1 CU, Sacra-mento, California's largest credit union with $2.6 billion in assets, has been given regulatory approval for community charter expansion in 11 California counties. The CU already had community charters in 10 California counties before these latest 11. The expansion gives The Golden 1 a greater presence in the Central Valley and Central Coast regions of California. The Golden 1 is a state chartered credit union, making it subject to different community expansion rules than those of the federal charter. State-chartered credit unions in California can be granted community charters in some counties and maintain their normal state charter in others. "That's part of the flexibility in California, you can do it county by county. You don't have to be a community charter across the board. That's a significant advantage over the federal charter. That's something they (NCUA) are going to have to change," said Stan Hollen, President/CEO of The Golden 1. Hollen said The Golden 1 is in approximately five other counties where it doesn't have a community charter. The addition of 11 counties gives The Golden 1 a possible 5.3 million new members. The largest county The Golden 1 added is Sacramento with a potential 1.8 million new members. Next is Fresno with 793,000 members; then San Joaquin with 554,000; and Stanislaus with 433,000. Hollen said The Golden 1 already has the physical presence to expand service in these counties. He said the CU has one or more branches in the 11 counties it received community expansion approval for. But the credit union likes to serve members through Internet banking and ATMs, of which it has approximately 220, making it second in the nation in ATM deployment to only Navy FCU. Hollen predicts more community expansions in the credit union industry, especially in California. "I think it is the definite trend in California. We were one of the last credit unions to go to a community charter in many of these counties. I believe it's going to give consumers considerably more choices." Hollen said The Golden 1 is undoubtedly invading other CUs' territories with the expansion, but that it can only help consumers. "We know from experience that competition doesn't harm other credit unions. The market is so big and the opportunity is so great to serve members, another credit union coming in won't hurt much," said Hollen. But the competition issue does raise the question of potential CU mergers in the region. Hollen said that's absolutely a possibility. "Yes I think community expansion is going to bring some credit unions together, even credit unions of similar size together," said Hollen. Hollen said he expects to see big California credit unions merging, noting that the economies of scale can greatly help in serving members. "There will be some positive constructive mergers of credit unions of all sizes." The Golden 1 CU currently serves 372,000 members and has $2.6 billion in assets. -pgentile@cutimes.com