In the eighth credit union-buying-bank deal announced in 2025, Avenir Financial Federal Credit Union in Arizona plans to buy in-state peer Mission Bank.

No financial details of the all-cash transaction were disclosed in a report by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The effective share price paid to shareholders of the bank’s holding company, Community Bancshares Inc., will depend on the financial performance of Kingsman-based Mission Bank during the period between deal signing and closing, according to the report.

The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026, at which point the $382 million-asset Avenir will have seven branches throughout Yuma and Mohave counties.

The deal is the eighth announced this year in which a credit union is buying a bank.

Most recently, Frontier Credit Union in Idaho Falls, Idaho, said it will expand its footprint into Montana through the purchase of $75 million-asset First Citizens Bank of Butte.

There were 22 CU-bank deals announced last year – the most ever. Prior to 2024, the most credit union-buying-bank deals struck in a year was 16 in 2022.

However, this year’s pace is slightly lagging 2024 as 11 credit union-bank deals had been announced by this point last year.

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“Despite economic headwinds and instability at the NCUA, we are anticipating more credit union-bank deals in 2025,” Luse Gorman attorney Jeff Cardone told Tyfone. “Smaller community banks are now more than ever willing to partner with credit unions that can provide liquidity for shareholders while generally keeping the banks’ employees, branches and lines of businesses and investing in the local communities served by the banks.”

Luse Gorman was the legal counsel for Avenir Financial FCU.

Still, these transactions continue to anger the banking trades, including the Independent Community Bankers of America.

ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said the need for policymaker action to prevent such deals is urgent.

“Credit unions operate far outside their congressional mandate of serving people of modest means with a defined membership, and they continue to exploit their tax exemption,” she said.

The most recent CU-bank deal in Arizona was last year’s tie up between OneAZ Credit Union and 1st Bank Yuma.

Yuma-based Avenir Financial has more than 34,000 members and earned roughly $220,000 in the first quarter, a 64% decrease compared to a year earlier, according to call report data from the National Credit Union Administration.

For the $194 million-asset Mission Bank, net income was $87,000 in the first quarter compared to $137,000 in the year-ago quarter, according to the FDIC.

“Policymakers must address this taxpayer-subsidized consolidation brought about by growth-obsessed credit unions taking advantage of loopholes and act to preserve market choice for consumers and small businesses.”

 – Rebeca Romero Rainey
President and CEO
ICBA