Affinity Group Credit Union and Kensington Valley Community Credit Union have announced plans to merge touting how collaboration is nothing new given their respective CUSO alliances.
The $103 million Affinity Group CU in Pontiac, Mich., and the $28 million Kensington Valley Community CU in Highland, Mich., said their boards, state regulators and members have all approved the merger.
The combined credit union will have assets of approximately $134 million, five branches, and more than 20,000 members, the majority of which live in Southeast Michigan.
Using the AGCU business model will allow KVC to continue to market the KVC brand as a part of AGCU, according to the credit unions. Three members of the KVC board will join the AGCU board. All KVC staff will become employees of AGCU and the Highland, Mich., office will remain open to serve all current and new members in the surrounding community.
"Our board took a serious look at the long-term prospects for our credit union and what it could offer to our members and our employees. Affinity Group was clearly the best option," said Joseph Strauss, president/CEO of KVC. "We knew we had to have a larger asset and capital base, but we wanted to stay 'us'. We wanted our staff to have opportunities. We wanted to give our members more than we could offer on our own. Affinity Group's model provides all that."
Thomas Miller, president/CEO of AGCU, said KVC is its fourth credit union to partner as the credit union continues to build a stronger presence for its members in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe and Livingston counties.
The credit unions said collaboration with other cooperatives and services providers is nothing new for them. Both have partnered with several CUSOs including CU*Answers, Mortgage Center LLC, Xtend LLC and CU Partner Solutions.
