Marketing changes, including new signage and ad material, were being readied this week for the April 1 startup of the newly branded $1.5 billion Lake Trust Credit Union of Lansing, Mich.
The new credit union was created by the merger of Detroit Edison CU and NuUnion CU, the state's fourth largest.
Final regulatory approval from the NCUA, the Michigan Office of Finance and Insurance Regulation, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice was received last week.
The combined CU will have 155,000 members and 22 branches in a 35-county area stretching across southern Michigan with plans to eventually expand into Ohio and Indiana.
The merger of the two healthy CUs has been in the works for more than a year. and in a plug for megamergers, a press statement by NuUnion said that industry research shows that CUs "of more than $1 billion in assets provide a stronger value proposition to members and more advantageous pricing."
It pointed to Filene Research Institute findings that members "usually get better rates and more services" from large CU consolidations. It also cited Callahan & Associates data that more mergers are in the offing for CUs with "900 mergers completed between January 2006 and March 2009."
