LAS VEGAS — The concerns expressed by the industry's trades and leagues on the impact of hostile takeovers among credit unions may be for naught, one veteran attorney said.
Bruce Jolly, partner with widely-known law firm Venable LLP and former counsel for CUNA, the Independent Community Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association, spoke yesterday at NACUSO's annual conference on Nationwide Federal Credit Union's merger with Nationwide Bank. Venable represented the credit union during the unprecedented merger. Jolly shared the legal and regulatory aspects of the deal. One of his handouts contained the statement "the myth of a hostile tender" under the section that asks "Nationwide FCU's merger–a One Time Transaction?"
"There is no such thing as a hostile takeover" among credit unions, Jolly told Credit Union Times. "[The merger plan] has to be approved by both boards. There is no process now by which a member of a target [credit union] can be directly affected by an offer."
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When asked about Wings Financial FCU's merger campaign strategies aimed at members of Continental FCU, Jolly said "Wings did what they could." As for whether he believes there will be more such merger campaigns where the credit union will circumvent a board's merger rejection and communicate directly to the members, Jolly said he expects there will be "frequent" similar attempts.
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