There is little doubt that the planned merger of a smaller and neighboring Pennsylvania CU advanced by the $65 million SPE Federal Credit Union of State College became complicated by charter issues, but this is one that took two years to complete.
That was a complaint voiced last week by SPE’s President/CEO Russell Brooks, who admitted to keen frustration over the regulatory delay of what initially would have appeared to a routine merger bid for the healthy $11.9 million Huntingdon County CU.
The NCUA has insisted there were necessary field of membership concerns regarding Huntingdon County since the smaller CU “had to expand its field of membership, which wasn’t ultimately approved by NCUA’s Office of Consumer Protection until February 2011.”
In Brooks’ estimation, the delay may have been the result of both the NCUA turmoil on the corporates and last year’s change in FOM/community charter rules.
