DURHAM, NC & OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Center for Community Self Help, the founding organization of both the $300 million, state chartered, Self Help Credit Union and the newly launched $10 Million Self Help Federal Credit Union said the merger between its federally chartered CU and another federal CU is proceeding well.

The long-standing and wide reaching community development lender launched Self Help FCU in Oakland, California, in July 2008 with a $5 million investment of its own funds. The $5 million from Self Help consisted of a $2.5 million equity investment and $2.5 million in secondary capital.

Self Help launched the federal credit union to help it build a lending presence on the west coast and to support an office Self Help launched in Oakland, California in September 2006, according to Steve Zuckerman, Oakland based spokesman for Self-Help.

Since its opening day, Self Help FCU has been busy. Even before it was chartered, Self Help representatives had begun talking to the $3.5 million People's Community Partnership FCU, another relatively young federally chartered CU headquartered in Oakland. The two credit unions completed their merger two months after NCUA chartered SHFCU and have been hard at work since ironing out the details of merging the two organizations, Zukerman said.