Not really sure how this benefits anyone other then the higher ups at both credit unions. I'm also curious to see, because these are two extremely large credit unions merging, if this will attract more scruitny and criticism then other credit union mergers. Seeing as how these are already both among the top 20 largest credit unions in the USA, i'm not sure what kind of increased economies of scale they'll gain that will benefit any of their members in any meaningful way.
They are very similar in that they are 2 very large credit unions (Both are in the top 20 largest credit uninos in the USA) and both have a relatively small amount of physical branches despite their very large asset size and both credit unions brag about how they have members in all 50 states. I guess if you're a DCU member in the Western part of the USA near a First Tech branch or a First Tech Member on the East Coast near a DCU branch, you'll now have a local branch to go to. Although both credit unions already participate in shared branching so that's a moot point.
And if you're banking at an out of state credit union, you probably don't care about physical branches and rarely ever go inside one (Such as myself, I've been a member of numerous out of state credit unions and online banks over the years and still am) Those kinds of members already utilize online banking and the mobile app to their full extent, Co-Op ATMs to make cash deposits when they need to and use a shared branch in the very unlikely and uncommon scenario they need to go inside of a branch for something.
One other thing i've seen some longtime DCU members lamenting about on social media, DCU was originally started to serve employees of the Digital Equipment Corporation and named after that company, and is one of the few remaining large credit unions still named after their original company despite the fact that company hasn't existed for decades now, and with this merger the last remaining remnant of Digital Equipment Corporation will be gone (if this merger goes through)
GTE Financial headquartered in Tampa, Florida is one of the only other credit unions I know of still using the name of the original company that has not existed for many decades that the credit union was originally created for to serve (GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000 to form Verizon Wireless)
Wings Credit Union, formerly Wings Financial Credit Union, headquartered in Apple Valley, MN was originally created to serve employees of Northwest AIrlines which hasn't existed in a very long time, but they ditched the Northwest Airlines name many, many, many years ago for Wings Financial Credit Union, and now just Wings Credit Union.
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Filed-September 2020 Discharged-December 2020
