The boards of directors of Corporate America Credit Union and Louisiana Corporate Credit Union last night announced their intent to pursue a merger, pending completion of due diligence and receipt of regulatory approvals.

If approved, the resulting credit union--named Corporate America and headquartered in Irondale, Ala.--will serve 514 member credit unions in 26 states. Current Corporate America CEO Thomas Bonds is slated to serve in the same capacity in the merged entity.

Louisiana member services will continue out of Louisiana Corporate's Metarie, La., offices, according to a press statement, which added that "LaCorp's staff will remain in place."

In that statement, Bonds indicated that "this business combination is a natural fit as our memberships are similar and our product and service offerings will benefit our combined membership going forward."

David Savoie, CEO of Louisiana Corporate, pointedly added: "I believe there is tremendous advantage in combining our corporates because we would be able to handle both the correspondent and credit needs of any sized credit union. Unlike some of the CUSO/bank partnership ideas now being floated, our members would not need to rely on banks for their credit or payment processing needs."

The statement noted that the merger will proceed "only if there is a sound business case for it."