Two Wisconsin credit unions – the $569 million Pioneer CU in Green Bay and the$459 million Capital CU inKimberly – have agreed to merge by July 1, 2014, they said thisweek.

The new billion dollar cooperative – Capital Pioneer CreditUnion – will serve more than 88,000 members from 23 branchesstretching from Sturgeon Bay to Oshkosh.

Though Pioneer CU is merging into Capital CU, Tom Young,president/CEO of Pioneer, said he considers it a partnership ofequals as both community charter credit unions share most of thesame marketplace in northeastern Wisconsin along Lake Michigan.

“If you were going to put two credit unions together I don'tthink you could find a better fit,” Young told the Credit UnionTimes on Thursday when the merger agreement was announced. “Itis a partnership.”

Young said he approached Alan Zierler, president/CEO of CapitalCU, in March with the merger proposal.

“We're 9% percent capitalized. Capital is 14% capitalized,” saidYoung. “Together, we'll be a billion dollar plus credit union with11% capital. I've gone through 13 smaller mergers in mycareer, but nothing like this. This is definitely a merger ofequals.”

Zierler said, “When you look at it, there is no downside. This(merger) will continue to offer our members premium rates, now withan even wider selection of services. Additionally, we will beable to specialize more in the future to better serve the changingneeds of our members.”

Merger plans call for Zierler to be named CEO and Young to benamed president of operations for the new credit union, theysaid.

Young said there will be no employee layoffs. The new creditunion will have about 316 employees. There will be no branchclosings because none of them overlap in providing services tomembers, the credit unions said.

Young said he expects the new credit union will benefit fromeconomies of scale when it installs a new IT system when the mergeris completed in July of next year. The merger also is expected toproduce savings in marketing and other operations.

The applications are expected to be filed this week to requestapprovals from the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutionsand NCUA. The merger also requires the majority approval fromPioneer CU members. That member vote is expected to occur inthe fall.