SEATTLE — Last month's fire sale of Washington Mutual Savings Bank to JPMorgan Chase Bank has brought a huge jump in memberships for the $8.5 billion BECU.
"Daily membership has doubled since the severity of WaMu's problems become known at mid-month," said a BECU spokesman in adding a common CU refrain of "it's a great time for credit unions."
Indeed, September set an all time monthly BECU record of 8,100, a figure which excludes direct lending auto memberships, said the spokesman for the 580,000-member Seattle CU.
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The average signed up online and branch members for the first two weeks of September hit 277 through Sept. 14 "about the time the news broke here" and the figures climbed to 490 during the last two weeks of the month, a 76% increase, said the spokesman. WaMu was officially seized Sept. 25 by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the FDIC and subsequently sold to Chase.
BECU's October figures were not immediately available but there is little doubt "we're going gangbusters," said the spokesman.
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