HAVERHILL, Mass. — The members of the $97 million Northeast Community Credit Union have approved the merger between their credit union and a local community bank.

Northeast Community and Haverhill Bank announced an intent to merge in July 2007. Since each is a state-chartered institution, and would remain such, the merger fell under a little-used part of the state's banking regulations. The credit union went through one meeting in September 2007, which approved the merger, as required by state regulations, but then had to go through a modified version of NCUA' charter-change procedures that concluded with a special Oct. 20 meeting.

An announcement that credit union members had approved the charter change and merger appeared on the bank's Website but not on the credit union's.

Reached at the credit union, Northeast CEO Peter Di Benedetto reported that about 50 members attended the special meeting to consider and finalize voting on the charter change and that about 2,000 of the CU's roughly 9,000 members (22%) cast ballots by mail. Di Benedetto said he did not know the margin of victory.