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Officials with the $5.1 billion Virginia Credit Union, Inc. headquartered in North Chesterfield, Va., and the $1.6 billion Member One Federal Credit Union announced their plans to merge on Thursday. The proposed merger would create the third largest credit union in Virginia, behind the Vienna, Va.-based Navy Federal Credit Union ($168 billion in assets) and the McLean, Va.-based Pentagon Federal Credit Union ($35 billion in assets).
According to the announcement, the merger must be approved by regulators and an affirmative vote by members of the Richmond, Va.-based Member One. If approved, the merged credit union would serve nearly 500,000 members and employ roughly 1,100 people with a network of 37 branches.
In a statement Thursday, officials said "this merger is between two financially healthy, future focused credit unions committed to providing unparalleled branch and digital access, along with amazing service for the members and the communities they serve. In a highly competitive financial services industry where consumers want things easier and more seamless than ever, this merger positions VACU and Member One to be a leading credit union doing just that."
Chris Shockley VACU President/CEO Chris Shockley said, "This partnership represents the heart of the credit union industry's cooperative mindset. Fundamentally, credit unions came into existence when people saw an opportunity to band together and pool their financial resources in order to provide access to financial products and services to people who needed them."
Frank Carter, president/CEO of Member One, added, "When I first sat down with Chris and we started to share our visions for our respective credit unions, everything about partnering together felt right. From the onset, both of our boards of directors have focused on ensuring that together we'd continue to provide the best member, employee and community value."
Shockley said, "Becoming a larger organization with more locations, more talent and more resources will ultimately result in greater economies of scale, which is a good thing. What becoming larger does not mean, however, is that we sacrifice our mission and our purpose. We would continue to invest in our members, our people and our communities."
According to details of the proposed merger, Shockley will become president/CEO of the combined organization and Carter would remain with the organization in an executive role until he retires. Details of Carter's retirement were not given.
The combined credit union statement also noted "that no employees would lose their job and no branch locations would be closed as a result of the merger."
Officials said they expect the merger of the two credit unions will become legal sometime in 2024.
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Michael Ogden
Editor-in-Chief at CU Times. To connect, email at [email protected]. As Editor-in-Chief of CU Times since 2016, Michael Ogden has led the editorial team in all aspects of content strategy and execution, including the creation of the publication’s exclusive and proprietary research database of the credit union industry’s economic landscape. Under Michael’s leadership, CU Times has successfully shifted to an all-digital editorial product with new focuses on the payments, fraud, lending and regulatory beats. Most recently, he introduced a data-focused editorial product for subscribers that breaks down credit union issues into hard data, allowing for a deeper and more factual narrative for readers. In 2024, he launched the "Shared Accounts With CU Times" podcast, which offers a fresh, inside-the-newsroom perspective through interviews with leaders from the credit union industry and the regulatory world. He dives into pressing credit union issues, while revealing the personalities working behind-the-scenes to push the credit union world forward. His background includes years as a radio and TV anchor/reporter and a public relations and digital/social media manager, where he covered the food and music industries, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Over the years, he has launched numerous exclusive video and podcast series, including a successful series of interactive backstage interviews with musicians at music festivals, showcasing his social media and live streaming production skills.
