Finalizing the merger of the tiny Champaign County Employees Credit Union, the CEO of its new parent, the $248 million University of Illinois Employees CU, said Thursday he sees no sign in Illinois or elsewhere of changing trends impacting small CUs.
"So many of these small credit unions are simply unable to provide the professional or management talent to keep on going," said E. J. Donaghey, president and head of UIECU, which undertook the merger of the $330,000 Champaign County CU at the request of its board.
The fact is, he said, Champaign County has been healthy but it decided on consolidation "and we're pleased they chose us." This is the first small CU merger since 2008 for UIECU but it seems certain there could be more in 2011, said Donaghey, a former management staffer with the Illinois Credit Union League. He also noted UIECU's last merger with Electrical Workers 601 CU of Champaign in July 2008 was regulator driven.
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In the future, the UIECU board may entertain additional mergers but capital, competitive and pooling factors will be carefully considered, he concluded.
The Champaign County Employees CU merger was made formally effective Nov. 30 and was announced this week.
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