As members of the $53 million KV Federal Credit Union mail in their ballots that will determine the future of their institution, the credit union's merger partner awaits word from a federal banking regulator about whether it will accept its proposed charter change.

If its members agree, the Augusta, Maine, based KV FCU will simultaneously convert to a federal mutual bank charter and merge with the 139 year old Kennebec Savings Bank. But that move relies on the state chartered Kennebec Savings Bank changing to a federal mutual bank charter and that application is currently pending at the Office of Thrift Supervision, according to the regulators Web site.

The situation is somewhat complicated by the pending merger and by the current economic and regulatory environment, according to press reports. But it's unclear that the FDIC will play as large a role in the Kennebec Savings Bank charter change as it has in credit union to bank charter conversions. In the past the insurer has been cited as one of the reasons that some proposed credit union to bank conversions have failed to gain regulatory approvals.