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A tepid economy and regulatory uncertainty together make for strange bedfellows, as epitomized by recent deals to sell two banks to, of all things, credit unions. And along with the deals comes renewed debate on whether the nonprofit institutions should be taxed.
March 16 -
The state's banking lobby is opposing a bill that would make it easier for thrifts to hold municipal deposits because the proposal would also let credit unions go after the same business.
April 8 -
GFA Federal Credit Union of Gardener, Mass., has agreed to acquire Monadnock Community Bank, a troubled former credit union located in nearby Peterborough, N.H., in the second credit union deal for a bank over the past few months.
March 2
Achieva Credit Union in Dunedin, Fla., has agreed to buy Calusa Bank in Punta Gorda, Fla.
The $23.2 million cash deal would expand the $1.1 billion-asset credit union's presence along the western Florida coast, where the $165 million-asset Calusa has four branches. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
It would be the first acquisition of a commercial bank by a credit union in Florida, and the seventh such deal nationally, according to a report from Hovde Group, which advised the transaction.
"We like the way they identify and reach out to their client base and their members," Todd Katz, Calusa's president, said in an interview Tuesday. "Let's face it, the regulatory burden that we've seen over the last few years has made it more difficult to make banking fun or profitable."
"The geographic location of their branches is appealing to us," said Gary Regoli, Achieva's chief executive. Calusa's branches fill "a gap in our branch footprint."
Regoli said a third-party vendor that Achieva works with suggested that it approach Calusa about a deal.
Much is often made of the differences between banks and credit unions, but Regoli said one thing that made the merger such a natural fit was the similar mind-set between credit unions and community banks. "Community banks, in more ways than people realize, are focused on the same things credit unions are," he said.
The number of bank acquisitions by credit unions has
Calusa Bank was formed in 2007, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
