Enhancing its Boston footprint, the $920 million Metro CreditUnion of Chelsea, Mass., said it has now completed a merger of the$30 million Secure CU of Melrose, Mass.

Addition of the 1,750-member Melrose CU is the secondconsolidation for 135,000-member Metro in 2011 and underscores “thedesire of small credit unions to broaden product and servicemenus,” said Robert Cashman, Metro president/CEO.

Cashman said there are no current plans to pursue furthermergers but the CU is on the lookout for opportunities where thereis a membership fit. Last April Metromerged the $58 million University CU.

“These are not easy decisions for boards to make but I docommend Secure for making that decision considering the addedregulatory pressures in today's economic environment,” Cashmansaid.

He added that his CU like others in Massachusetts has reaped bigmember gains as a result of Bank Transfer Day and the Bank of America runup on debitfees.

“I'd say in some areas we were up 75% from a year ago in newaccount activity,” Cashman said, adding that he thought BofA erredbadly in its policy of pursuing the fees.

“The damage has been done,” he said and predicted that creditunions will continue to take advantage of the fallout.