Vancity Merger with First Credit Union | Vancity | Discussion forum

BCFSA reported 40 credit unions in BC in its 2021 report. The equivalent 2025 report lists 28 and that will decline by 1 with this merger to 27. It will make Vancity #1 by far (~$42B of assets) over its closest rival.

https://www.bcfsa.ca/media/4187/download

I find it hard to believe there are still so many incredibly tiny CUs in this province

I sure hope this doesn't mean we will lose our grandfathered old-folks statements and dedicated old-folks phone line! (It's only slightly faster than the general-public one.)

I'd be gone after 35 years with them.

AltaRed said
BCFSA reported 40 credit unions in BC in its 2021 report. The equivalent 2025 report lists 28 and that will decline by 1 with this merger to 27. It will make Vancity #1 by far (~$42B of assets) over its closest rival.

https://www.bcfsa.ca/media/4187/download

I find it hard to believe there are still so many incredibly tiny CUs in this province  

Tiny is not always better, from a member governance and accountability standpoint. 😉

In reality, you could continue to have many, many very small credit unions, with their own boards, accountable to members. What we really need is just more centralization of product suites, marketing, technology and back office services to Central 1 Credit Union.

In Quebec, Desjardins does this quite well, and while one might think there is only one caisse populaire, in fact there are hundreds, each producing their own audited financial statements and holding local first AGMs.

Perhaps that's something to explore, but it can't be with any existing credit union 'swallowing' others. They should form an organizational restructuring whereby collectively come together in a 'partnership pact,' decide on a consumer-facing brand, and then restructure themselves as constituent parts to the larger organization, essentially making Central 1 Credit Union the consumer-facing organization, owned by their member credit union partners, who in turn are owned by their members.

Cheers,
Doug

AltaRed said
A bit off-topic, and with all due respect, with my overall general knowledge of southeast BC, it needs to consolidate more than they currently are. Only Kootenay falls into category 2 and two more, Nelson/Steller, fall into category 3. Three more (Columbia/Creston/Revelstoke) are in category 4. I wouldn't have much faith in quality governance of those smaller ones given what I remember about some small ones in Alberta some years ago.

Given the relative proximity of all of them and commonality of issues, there is a stronger opportunity seeing all 6 of those rolled together. I suspect it is just a matter of time for that to happen.  

I get your line of thinking, but you're still thinking in terms of historical past credit union mergers, which have not resulted in improved member accountability. In fact, it has created larger fiefdoms that are less democratic with no provincial consumer regulatory guardrails that the Canadian federal banks and trust companies have. For example, there are no provisions for hold periods, access to funds, or requirements to open basic banking accounts for provincial credit unions, and these are just the bare minimums. As the credit unions get larger, it becomes next to impossible to galvanize change, particularly because the insular credit union's senior leadership team recommends to the board anti-member provisions around campaigning. So to is management able to provide a "recommended slate" of director candidates, often a 'pool' of candidates in waiting for lucrative senior leadership or middle manager positions.

Who is to say Vancity's marketing and member recruitment and retention, branch retention strategy, etc., is the best over, say, Salmon Arm Savings & District Credit Union? In fact, SASCU consistently receives high regulatory praise from its provincial regulator, despite being a middle tier of B.C. credit unions.

At least by bringing the Desjardins model of credit unions to B.C., we can have a combined, top tier credit union, but still has the member accountability rigour of members being able to elect their local boards. If they decide to break away, they can still do that, as the financials are consolidated but also still concurrently separate.

Cheers,
Doug

doug said

Tiny is not always better, from a member governance and accountability standpoint. 😉

In reality, you could continue to have many, many very small credit unions, with their own boards, accountable to members. What we really need is just more centralization of product suites, marketing, technology and back office services to Central 1 Credit Union.

In Quebec, Desjardins does this quite well, and while one might think there is only one caisse populaire, in fact there are hundreds, each producing their own audited financial statements and holding local first AGMs.

Perhaps that's something to explore, but it can't be with any existing credit union 'swallowing' others. They should form an organizational restructuring whereby collectively come together in a 'partnership pact,' decide on a consumer-facing brand, and then restructure themselves as constituent parts to the larger organization, essentially making Central 1 Credit Union the consumer-facing organization, owned by their member credit union partners, who in turn are owned by their members.

Cheers,
Doug  

Manitoba's credit unions seem tiny in comparison- only 15 of them, and the largest, Access Credit Union, only has 13.4 billion in assets.

Rail Baron said

But the Manitoba credit unions' interest rates are not tiny. Often - Hubert and MAXA offer great rates for GICs, making it worth saving with them. Achieva, less so - especially since they stopped their monthly bonus for getting electronic statements.  

I've never looked at the financials of the MB CUs relative to say the likes of Meridian or a few others since I have no skin in the game, but one should then wonder how they can do that relative to their competition. Perhaps they take more risk on their lending side.

I know some of you will say you don't care due to deposit insurance and that is true, but it also includes higher risk of a particular CU having to be rescued and consolidated with another in tough times.