Seventy-seven current VACORP credit unions have toldMid-Atlantic Corporate Credit Union CEO Jay Murray that they willput capital into Mid-Atlantic and become full members after themerger between the two corporate CUs.

Murray will remain on as CEO of Mid-Atlantic after the merger.He announced the member vote approving themerger Tuesday and said he hoped other VACORP member CUs woulddo the same. “I hope we will get more,” said Murray, who indicatedLynchburg, Virg.-based VACORP has a membership around 165.

Middletown, Penn-based Mid-Atlantic's present member count isaround 700.

Murray confirmed that VACORP members seeking to joinMid-Atlantic will be required to put up capital, in accordance withMid-Alantic's tiered capitalization formula, where highercontributions win lower prices for services.

The merger won formal approval fromNCUA in October. It is slated to become official February 4, 2012,a date well behind the schedule indicated when merger plans wereannounced inDecember 2010. Murray indicated that staffing shortages at NCUA –“their resources are stretched” – had impacted the speed of therequired reviews. “That delayed our merger,” said Murray.

In a wide ranging interview, Murray indicated that Mid-Atlantichad not pursued a possible acquisition of Western Bridgebecause, said Murray, he sees the role of Mid-Atlantic bestfulfilled where it has representatives on the ground which,roughly, correlates with the mid-Atlantic region. He added: “Wehave looked at other mergers and will look at more but our decisionwill be made on a case by case basis.”

“The corporates industry is shrinking,” added Murray, “becausethe number of natural person credit unions is. This is a realityfor all corporates today.”