After 81 years of serving at the heart of American power, White House Federal Credit Union will merge with the Department of Commerce Federal Credit Union during this presidential election year.
The credit union that has served the executive branch of government since 1935 will be one of the nation's fortunate merged cooperatives because it will keep its name post-merger, unlike most of the 238 credit unions across the country that were consolidated out of existence in 2015.
However, the total number of last year's mergers was lower than 2014's total number of NCUA-approved consolidations of 262. The 2015 merger tally was also less than the 243 approved mergers in 2013 and 258 in 2012.
While the total number of credit union mergers has slightly declined over the last four years, the basic trend line average of about 200 to 250 consolidations annually is expected to continue for years to come.
"The percentage of the total credit union universe involved in mergers is up 65% from where it was in 2000," Dennis Dollar, president/CEO of Dollar Associates, said. "This trend is likely to continue, driven by competitive challenges, compliance burden, regulatory demands and the need for greater economies of scale. While the number may go up or down a little each year, the trend line is well established."
Dollar's Birmingham, Ala.-based firm is currently working on 14 mergers.
"When our phone rings, 60% of the calls are merger-related in some way," he said. "Our projections are that there will be between 4,000 and 5,000 credit unions by the year 2020. Things may settle a little after 2020 as the assimilation takes place, but we are convinced that merger activity is going to continue at a rate close to one per business day."
Read more details in the Feb. 10, 2016 print issue of Credit Union Times about the White House FCU merger, NCUA-approved consolidations from the fourth quarter of last year and why Dollar believes mergers among large-asset credit unions could be the next merger trend.
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