Their rationale may have varied slightly from case to case, but the bottom line was often the same: Credit unions are willing and able to pay more and they pay in cash.

The most recent transaction – announced just two days before the end of the year – involved the $839 million-asset Zeal Credit Union and its plans to acquire Gogebic Range Bank of Ironwood, Michigan.

Financial details of the deal – as is the case with almost all of these tie-ups that do not involve a publicly-traded bank – were not disclosed, other than the fact that it was an all-cash transaction.

Prior to 2024, the most credit union-buying-bank deals ever announced in a year was 16 in 2022, but there were only 11 such deals announced in 2023.

We’ll talk about expectations for 2025 deal volumes in a minute, but first let’s take a closer look at some of the record-setting deals of 2024.

• The largest bank acquired by a credit union last year was also the largest bank ever bought by a credit union. In early January, Global Federal Credit Union agreed to acquire the $1.5 billion-asset First Financial Northwest Bank.
  • There was a larger deal announced involving the $1.6 billion-asset Heritage Southeast Bank selling itself to VyStar Credit Union in 2021, but it ultimately failed to close.
• On the opposite side of the asset spectrum, the smallest bank acquired by a credit union in 2024 was the $105 million-asset Washington Business Bank, which in December closed its deal with Sound Credit Union.
• One of the 2024 deals has already been called off.
  • Atlanta Postal Credit Union and Affinity Bank’s boards terminated their proposed deal after discussions between the credit union and regulatory agencies. That deal was announced in May.
• Washington was a hotbed for CU-bank deals last year as five community banks in the state sold to credit unions – more than any other state. New York, Florida and Arizona each were the site of two deals.
• West Virginia experienced its first-ever credit union-buying-bank deal last year. REV Federal Credit Union in Summerville, South Carolina, said it agreed to acquire the $149 million-asset First Neighborhood Bank in Spencer, West Virginia.
• Double the amount of bank assets were sold to credit unions in 2024 compared to the previous record-year of 2022, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.
  • Bank assets totaling $10.88 billion moved to CUs last year compared to $5.15 billion in 2022.

For example, DFCU Financial, which acquired the $689 million-asset First Citrus Bank in Tampa in early 2023, announced that it planned to buy Winter Park National Bank in Winter Park, Florida.

And Lakewood, Washington-based Harborstone Credit Union, which acquired Burlington, Washington-based SaviBank last year, previously bought Seattle-based First Sound Bank.

There will likely be more consolidation in 2025 than in 2024, said Michael Bell, an attorney at Honigman, who advised several credit unions on bank acquisitions last year.

That’s because the economics related to operating a financial institution remain unchanged. Said differently, the environment remains challenging for institutions that do not have scale, he told Tyfone.

“In addition to economics, succession planning and talent retention and acquisition remain very difficult for smaller financial institutions,” Bell said.

Attorney Jeff Cardone of Luse Gorman, who also advised on several of last year’s deals, agreed.

“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.

In fact, a person with knowledge of M&A activity in the industry told Tyfone the first three CU-bank deals to be struck in 2025 have already been signed with announcements coming shortly.

And that will only further anger bankers and the banking trades, which have railed against these deals for years.

Brad Bolton, President and CEO of $205 million-asset Community Spirit Bank in Red Bay, Alabama, has been as outspoken in opposition to credit unions buying banks as anyone.

Bolton, the former chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America, posted on LinkedIn after the Zeal/Gogebic Range deal announcement that credit union lobbyists and others with skin in the game want to normalize these deals.

Bolton said that, by his count, Gogebic Range was the 64th community bank to be “gobbled up by taxpayer-assisted credit unions in the past 60 months.”

“It is outrageous behavior that screams mission creep. Do not be deceived and do not rest on this issue. It is not normal, and the rest of us will pay the price having to pick up the tax bill for each one of these transactions.”

 – Brad Bolton
President and CEO
Community Spirit Bank