I found myself following the Continental FCU and Wings Financial Federal Credit Union story in the Credit Union Times for the past few weeks. What I find amazing is the number of parallels to the banking industry I see with this saga by Wings Financial.

For instance, how many times have we heard consumers are upset when their local institution is taken over by a larger financial institution–service decreases, employees are let go, and community involvement is eliminated or reduced–just to name a few. I have no knowledge this would happen, but if history repeats itself, and it seems to me, Wings is taking a page out of the banking industry playbook which calls for increasing your market share and reducing competition through acquisitions and or mergers.

Oh, but Wings did state, "Continental FCU belongs to its members." I guess they forgot that point on their special Web site claiming a benefit of the merger would be "Instant Ownership." Domenic DiPillo Vice President Market Development & Technology Sun East Federal Credit Union Aston, Pa.