Minnesota’s Largest Credit Union Plans to Buy Savings & Loan Bank
However, the credit union’s planned deal to buy Neighborhood National Bank, announced last year, has not closed.
Minnesota’s largest credit union announced Monday the industry’s first proposed bank acquisition for 2021.
The $6.4 billion Wings Financial Credit Union in Apple Valley, Minn., agreed to acquire the $70.2 million Brainerd Savings & Loan in Brainerd, Minn.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This is the second proposed bank purchase made by Wings Financial in less than a year. In February 2020, the credit union announced the planned acquisition of the $260 million Neighborhood National Bank in Mora, Minn.
However, the deal did not close.
“Beyond the deal not closing, we don’t have any further comment on this transaction,” Wings Financial Vice President of Marketing Brent C. Anderson said Tuesday.
Neighborhood National Bank did not respond to CU Times‘ request for comment.
This planned deal, which was initially expected to close during last year’s third quarter, would have included the purchase of the Neighborhood National Bank’s six branches, two in Mora, and one each in Aitkin, North Branch, Brainerd and Alexandria, which are located throughout central Minnesota, north of Minneapolis.
Brainerd S&L, which was founded in 1922, currently employs 12 people who operate a branch that serves its 4,500 members.
At the end of the third quarter, the bank posted total deposits of $56.2 million, nearly $5 million in capital and recorded a net income of $104,000, according to its financials filed with the FDIC.
The transaction, which requires approval by state and federal regulators, is expected to close by May 31. At that time, the bank’s branch will remain open under the credit union’s brand. Brainerd S&L members will become Wings Financial members.
When the acquisition is completed, it will bring the credit union’s total branch presence in Minnesota to 25 branches.
“We have been exploring opportunities for expanding our services in central Minnesota and this transaction was a great fit for both Brainerd Savings & Loan and Wings,” Wings Financial President/CEO Frank Weidner said in a prepared statement.
In 2018, Wings Financial completed the acquisition of three Klein Bank branches, which added about 4,000 members from Minneapolis’ northwest suburbs of Coon Rapids, Otsego and Plymouth.
Wings Financial currently serves 301,517 members.