The $6 billion Security Service Federal Credit Union of Texas said Friday its takeover this week of the failed $145 million Beehive CU "is going very well with positive member response" despite months of public turmoil.
The San Antonio CU, as Utah's newest out-of-state entry, also reaffirmed its eagerness to "cooperate fully with our Utah peers to ensure the continued viability of the credit union charter in Utah and throughout the country" in an apparent reference to the bitter and costly field of membership court fight with the banking lobby.
The presence of four billion dollar CUs in the Utah market, including the two newest through mergers, has raised speculation Utah could once again become another test battleground for a bank/CU clash perhaps over the tax exemption.
In its latest statement on NCUA's awarding Beehive to Security, the Texas CU said that while "member concern" was raised once the news hit, "there was relief once they understood that their funds remained safe and federally insured." Word of Beehive's financial troubles, its large real estate losses and below 2% net worth have circulated in Utah and throughout the West for much of 2010.
The Salt Lake City CU chartered in 1954 has 18,000 members, many of whom are state employees. The CU once had been a candidate for a savings bank charter conversion.
"We are delighted to be entering the Utah market and to have a great workforce joining our enterprise," said John Worthington, senior vice president of Security. The Texas CU, he said, retains its largest footprint in Colorado and Texas with no current plans to expand elsewhere though it is well known Security has been high on the NCUA's registry list as a potential acquirer.
Worthington
said his CU is "enthused about being in Utah and will compete with the other, successful credit unions in the marketplace."
