The $250 million Freedom First Credit Union began operating its 11th branch Monday following the merger completed last week of the struggling Carilion FCU, both in Roanoke, Va.
Carilion, founded in 1970 to serve members of the Carilion medical clinic, had sought the consolidation in mid-2011. The CU lost $82,000 last year and $52,000 in 2010.
The merger won approval of the membership of the $8.6 million, 2,600 member Carilion FCU on Dec. 1 and the takeover was made effective March 1.
Freedom First has 40,000 members and calls itself the largest community development financial institution in Virginia.
“This is the first merger for us in many years but we are not aggressively setting our sights on merging others,” noted Jamie Asciolla, vice president of marketing.
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