BRATTLEBORO — Many of our members are already aware of the pending partnership between River Valley Credit Union (RVCU) and Members Advantage Community Credit Union (MACCU).
This is a very unique and exciting opportunity to partner with a like-sized and like-minded Vermont credit union. This partnership will have many benefits for members, including lower fees, improved rates, added products and services, and the ability to keep up with the electronic and digital services for members.
This will also help ensure the long-term viability of both credit unions. As two small Vermont credit unions, we have been strategically focused on joining forces through a merger of equals that would benefit all members. A partnership between the two of us makes us both stronger and will provide us with more resources to better serve our membership.
This partnership will expand and improve our ability to serve the lending needs of our members. By combining credit unions, we will have a larger capacity to lend to our members, and we will be adding more loan products. For example, student loans and fixed rate home equity loans will become available immediately.
As a combined credit union, we will have the ability to introduce business loans to our membership and plan to do so in approximately a year. We currently don't provide this service and it is the single-most-requested service from our members.
RVCU Senior Management will continue to lead these consumer and mortgage loan areas from Brattleboro.
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MACCU is very focused on serving the lending needs of members. They consistently have one of the highest loan-approval rates for credit unions in Vermont each year, often outperforming RVCU in this area. Short-term investments are used only out of necessity when their loan demand is low.
MACCU has traditionally had a teacher- and school-based membership. This core membership has had a lower loan demand than ours at RVCU. This is typical of teacher and school-based credit unions across the country.
This member diversification helps us both and will allow us to use these excess member deposits to lend to more of our current RVCU members. This will especially be the case with real estate loans, as we have regulatory restrictions that currently limit our capacity to help RVCU members.
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As a result of this partnership, the Brattleboro office would continue to be the hub of activity for the combined credit union. Brattleboro will be the location for a majority of business functions, including operations, accounting/finance, human resources, information technology, the call center, and compliance for the combined credit union. It will also continue to house our consumer loan and mortgage loan departments.
Our Barre office would be listed as our main office for some administrative efficiencies and as a corporate mailing address for regulatory correspondence.
RVCU will not close any offices or lose any employees. This partnership will create more career opportunities for our employees, improve benefits, and increase jobs in the Brattleboro area over time. It will also better position us to add more local branch offices in the future.
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RVCU's board of directors and staff are very well represented in this partnership. Six of the 13 directors will become current RVCU directors. Every current RVCU board member who wanted to continue serving on the new board will do so, and the Brattleboro area will have the strongest geographical representation among the body.
The senior management team of the combined organization will be comprised of 12 employees, seven of whom are current RVCU employees.
Both credit unions have worked very hard to create a fair and reasonable approach to this partnership. The new combined credit union will have a brand-new name shortly after the merger is complete. We didn't feel that the name of either current entity would be appropriate for the combined organization.
Finally, your CEO, senior management team, and board of directors unanimously support this partnership and believe that it is in your best interest. We will be sending out an official membership meeting notice and a voting ballot to all members once we receive regulatory approval to do so. Members will be able to vote by written ballot or by attending the membership meeting.
We will also be hosting several informational sessions so members can obtain additional information and ask questions. We encourage you to vote “Yes” for this partnership and support this important endeavor.
As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.