It's been a big year for mergers – four of them – for the $540million Great Lakes FCU in North Chicago, Ill., with the latestproviding a toehold into the Milwaukee, Wis. market.

“Yes, we have tried to be supportive to small credit unions thatexperienced capital problems and look to us for help,” Vikki I. Kaiser, president/CEO of Great Lakes, said of theconsolidation of the long-troubled $11 million Federated Family CUof Milwaukee approved last week by the NCUA.

Federated is a victim of the 2009 subprime loan disasterbefalling a string of southern Wisconsin and Illinois CUs followingthe collapse of Central States Mortgage Co., an industry-runCUSO in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa.

At least four of the original 24 CU investors in CSMC havealso opted for mergers. Federated Family had told its members lastApril that it would be looking for a merger partner after writingoff $1 million in losses from the CUSO's failure.

“The reserves of FFCU have been significantly reduced whichresulted in numerous meetings” with regulators as the Milwaukee CUoperated “under a mandated net worth restoration plan,” FederatedFamily said in unveiling the Great Lakes merger bid.

Lamenting the fate of CSMC, Federated Family said it hoped“that losses from CSMC would diminish as the bankrupt propertieswere sold but that has not been the case,” adding that “indicationsare that losses will continue in the years ahead.”

Great Lakes said it agreed to the Federated Family mergerbecause both CUs serve a similar member base of federal employees,including at the Federal Reserve in Milwaukee and Chicago. It hadnine branches and now adds two more from FederatedFamily.

Kaiser said she hopes to complete data conversion on the FFCUmerger by Nov. 1, adding that Great Lakes FCU remains open to moremergers with Illinois or Wisconsin CUs grappling with complianceconcerns “or the lack of loan volume and little investmentincome.”

During 2011, Great Lakes merged two tiny suburban Chicago CUs,the $300,000 Chicago Heights Onized FCU and the $533,000 Local 701IBEW CU of Warrenville. In addition, it merged the $20 million H-FCU of Country Club Hills.