COLUMBUS, Ohio — The $587 million Nationwide FCU has sent the first round of disclosure documents about its proposed merger with Nationwide Bank to its members. If they approve, the members will agree to effectively sell the credit union for $79 million to the new bank, a roughly 20% premium over the equity the CU reported in its March 31 call report.

In some ways the disclosure packet resembles those used by CUs, which are trying to convince their members to approve a charter change to a mutual bank, but the ways it differed were in some ways even more significant.

The similarities include scheduling. Like charter change votes where members will have to decide whether to change their charters to mutual banks there will be three mailings of the disclosure packet to members, 90, 60 and 30 days before the vote. But unlike the other charter change efforts, the CU will only include ballots, which members will use to vote on the matter with the 30-day notice.