The $1.2 billion Municipal Employees Credit Union in Baltimore will finalize its acquisition of the $62 million Advance Mutual Savings Bank in Baltimore by the end of Thursday's business day, according to an Advance Bank prepared statement.
“The voting members of Advance approved the related plan of dissolution at a special meeting of members held on Nov. 15, 2013,” a statement on Advance's website reads. “As a result, at the close of business on Dec.12, 2013, MECU will assume all of Advance's deposits and essentially all of its assets subject to completion of certain closing requirements.”
State and federal regulators approved the acquisition in October.
Though no purchase price was released, the deal calls for MECU to acquire all loans, investments, real estate, accrued interest receivables and other banking-related assets, as well as to assume all deposits, Federal Home Loan Bank advances and accrued interest payable.
Nineteen of Advance Bank's employees will continue to work for MECU and the bank's two branches will continue to operate as well, Bert Hash, president/CEO of MECU, has said.
Hash also has said more than two-thirds of Advance's 3,500 customers either live or work in the city of Baltimore, which makes them automatically eligible for MECU membership. MECU said it plans to pay the $5 membership fee for Advance members to become MECU members.
However, for the one-third of Advance's customers who don't already qualify to join the cooperative, MECU plans to pay their $5 fee to become members of the American Consumer Council, which would make them automatically eligible to become MECU members, Hash said.
MECU's first bank acquisition is part of what appears to be an emerging trend in the credit union industry.
In September, the $255 million, 23,000-member Five Star Credit Union in Dothan, Ala., signed a definitive agreement to purchase the $21 million Flint River National Bank in Camilla, Ga.
Other similar deals that have been finalized over the past two years include the $1.5 billion United Federal Credit Union in St. Joseph, Mich., acquiring Griffith Savings Bank; the $2.1 billion Landmark Credit Union in New Berlin, Wis., purchasing the $190 million Hartford Savings Bank, and the $352 million GFA Federal Credit Union of Gardner, Mass., buying Monadnock Community Bank.
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