Hudson Valley Credit Union has completed its acquisition of Catskill Hudson Bancorp Inc., the holding company of Catskill Hudson Bank.

The Monticello, New York-based bank said on its website that the conversion of its 7,500 customers’ deposit and loan accounts will occur in early March.

Poughkeepsie, New York-based Hudson Valley CU announced the deal on Jan 9, 2024. It was the first credit union-buying-bank deal announced last year.

Catskill Hudson Bancorp stockholders will receive $40.50 in cash for each share of common stock held, representing an aggregate deal value of roughly $28.6 million.

The deal was originally expected to be completed during the second half of 2024.

It was the first credit union purchase of a bank to ever take place within the state of New York, although later last year ESL Federal Credit Union agreed to acquire $401 million-asset Generations bank in Seneca Falls.

Ultimately, 22 deals involving banks selling themselves to credit unions were announced in 2024. But five M&A deals in which a credit union would have been the acquirer failed last year, including one transaction involving a bank seller, a new study by S&P Global Market Intelligence found.

Atlanta Postal Credit Union’s planned acquisition of Affinity Bank was called off in December.

There has only been one such deal announced thus far in 2025. The $1.5 billion-asset Frontwave Credit Union in Oceanside, California, in January said it agreed to acquire the $316 million-asset Community Valley Bank in El Centro.

By this time last year, five credit union-bank deals had already been announced.

“The first quarter is always a little slow due to lag from the holidays,” said attorney Mike Bell of Honigman, who has advised on many of these deals over the years.

Industry observers still believe the conditions are ripe for a healthy volume of CU-bank deals in 2025, with attorney Jeff Cardone of Luse Gorman among them.

“Given the improved economic conditions and our current pipeline of deal activity, we are anticipating that the number of CU-bank deals in 2025 will exceed the record-breaking number of deals in 2024,” he told Tyfone.

Catskill Hudson Bank, which will now operate as a division of Hudson Valley CU, said that in today’s increasingly competitive environment with growing regulatory demands on small community banks, a merger with a larger and stronger partner that shares its values will best serve the bank in the future.

“It was very clear from our initial contact with Hudson Valley Credit Union and its leadership that they have the same commitment to customers, employees and the community that Catskill Hudson has had since 1993,” the bank said in a statement.

But the banking trades continue to take the stance that credit unions are leveraging their tax exemption to make “inflated” offers for community banks.

“The growing skepticism of credit unions’ tax and regulatory exemptions must evolve into policymaker action as another tax-paying community bank is acquired by a tax-exempt credit union, especially with Congress raising questions about Frontwave Credit Union’s treatment of military servicemembers,” said the Independent Community Bankers of America’s President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey.

HVCU will now have 39 full-service branches throughout the Hudson Valley and Capital Region.

The $7.5 billion-asset Hudson Valley CU has 371,000 members and earned more than $22 million in 2024 after earning $2.8 million the year before.

Catskill Hudson Bank had $526 million of assets, $449 million in deposits and $422 million in loans at the end of last year. The company lost $2.3 million in 2024, according to S&P data.