“Even more troubling was the inability to complete a standard merger with another credit union as the surviving credit union if the other credit union served any communities outside of our existing field of membership,” he said.

Although the acquisition of the $259 million Chetco Credit Union in 2012 expanded Rogue credit union community charter to five Oregon counties and one California county, the three new counties only added 112,000 potential members.

“While we successfully leveraged this purchase and assumption, we did not see the acquisition of troubled credit unions as a preferred long-term strategy for market expansion,” Pelham said. “So, after operating as a federally chartered credit union since 1956 the board of directors decided to pursue a conversion to a state charter.”

Eighty percent of the 4,000 members who voted favored the charter conversion in October. The credit union also secured both state and federal approvals. Rogue CU serves 83,577 members.

“As a state chartered credit union Rogue Credit Union will now serve 24 Oregon counties and one California county,” Pelham said. “We have members throughout Oregon that regularly refer their friends and neighbors to Rogue and this charter expansion now provides us the opportunity to say yes to those Oregon residents that want to do business with us.”

Similar to Rogue, Oregon State Credit Union had been a federally chartered cooperative since 1954, and determined it needed to switch to a state charter for future growth.

Though the charter change will enable Oregon State to expand its FOM from five counties to 24 of the state's 36 counties, it has no current plans to move into any new counties.

“What we are looking for is to have the ability to have long-term growth,” Assistant Vice President of Public Relations and Business Development Mike Corwin said.

In the near term, the state charter will allow the credit union to continue serving members who have moved to other counties and provide indirect auto loans to consumers throughout much of Oregon.

Eighty-seven percent of the 8,000 members who voted approved the charter conversion in November. Approvals from the state and NCUA were also secured.

OSCU serves 80,711 members.