Two California Credit Unions Merge, National CU Group Says

Two months after being placed into a conservatorship, the Pomona Postal Federal Credit Union of Pomona, California, has merged with another credit union (CU).

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) announced the merger Monday (Jan. 3), saying the Pomona CU had merged into the Anaheim-based Credit Union of Southern California.

According to the release, CU members should see no interruptions to their services, with deposits protected by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, which backs individual accounts up to $250,000.

The NCUA placed the Pomona CU into conservatorship on Nov. 5 of last year and appointed itself as conservator.

“The agency worked to address issues affecting the credit union’s safety and soundness,” the NCUA wrote in the release. “As conservator, the NCUA determined that merging Pomona Postal Federal Credit Union into Credit Union of Southern California was in the best interests of its members.”

Prior to the merger, the Pomona CU — founded in 1964, primarily to serve postal workers in that part of California — had assets of a little over $4 million and 717 members.

Meanwhile, the Credit Union of Southern California had assets of $2.22 billion and 129,617 members. The merger comes at a time of significant growth for credit unions, as PYMNTS reported recently.

Read more: Credit Unions Mix Personal Service, 24/7 Digital Support to Win Small Business Customers

Worldwide membership in CUs grew by 29% in 2020, according to a study by the World Council of Credit Unions, with CUs now counting more than 375 million members throughout 118 countries.

This growth has been credited to digital initiatives and COVID-driven financial assistance attracting new members, as well as ongoing membership retention efforts.

In the U.S., more than 4.4 million people joined credit unions between August 2020 and August 2021, according to the Credit Union National Association (CUNA).

CUNA says this number exceeds the 4.1 million new members from the period between 2019 and 2020, bringing the total national CU members to 130 million people.

This growth could be partly due to higher banking fees, hiked by larger banks in response to an amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act that placed a limit on the fees banks can charge merchants to process debit card purchases.

Related: How Credit Unions Can Work to Identify and Eliminate Fraud Risks