If the world is cold, make it your business to build fires, said Horace Traubel. Translation: If your industry is consolidating, make it your business to consolidate. At the moment you may think you have approximately 6,500 possible consolidation partners. However, now is the time to consider a cross-industry transaction and increase the number of your possible consolidation partners by approximately 7,000 to a whopping 13,500.

Cross-industry transactions offer a series of advantages and the timing for these couldn't be better than now.

Cross-industry transactions, by their very nature, are largely business transactions and do not inhere the emotional issues often present in credit union-to-credit union transactions. Emotional issues such as naming, board seats and the like, render credit union-to-credit union transactions prone to stalls. Conversely, cross-industry transactions boil down to the numbers. Additionally, with proper mark to market accounting (typically involving an aggressive mark to the target loan portfolio) and valuations, a cross-industry transaction can be structured in a way that allows the transaction to contribute cash to the bottom line from day one, post closing. Compare this with the typical five-year profitability timeframe of a de novo branch and the advantage becomes clear. These transactions allow you to purchase existing branches and customers to provide an instant impact to your credit union.