Firefighters Community Credit Union banking on Lorain County with latest addition - Cleveland Business News - Northeast Ohio and Cleveland - Crain's Cleveland Business

Firefighters Community Credit Union in Cleveland is continuing expansion efforts with its first foray into Lorain County at the end of the year via its acquisition of Sun Center Federal Credit Union of LaGrange.The transaction takes effect Dec. 31, pending regulatory approvals. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The deal is rooted in succession planning for Sun, from which CEO Brenda Hammond will retire in December, and in strategic planning for Firefighters, where board members have been pushing the credit union to continue expanding its geographic footprint and bolstering membership since the adoption of its community charter in 2005. Firefighters, which currently serves Lake and Cuyahoga counties, will take over operations of Sun's five Lorain County locations. The deal has been in the works since spring.

Firefighters will add $35 million in assets, about 4,000 members and 18 employees with the merger, said CEO Ben Laurendeau. The deal will take Firefighters to $235 million in assets with about 32,000 members and 80 employees.

Mergers of credit unions have become increasingly common since the end of the Great Recession, Laurendeau said, especially for Firefighters, which is completing its fourth acquisition in about as many years in the transaction with Sun.

“It's just very difficult for a small credit union to survive with additional regulatory burdens (and) aging memberships. ... There are a lot of forces that make it hard to survive,” he said. “We want to be an active player, and so this is part of our growth and expansion strategy.”
The deal is bittersweet for Hammond, who has served members at Sun for more than 34 years. But it's in the best interest of the credit union's members, she said, and even employees who will now have further career opportunities.

“As regulatory compliance becomes more prevalent, more and more small credit unions across the United States are choosing to merge with much larger credit unions to be able to continue serving the membership that has made them successful,” Hammond said.
“With that being said, I felt that (Firefighters) was our best choice in our surrounding area,” she said. “Their focus is on excellent member service and creating loyalty as well. Sun Center FCU was in a position to select a partner that we felt mirrored our overall business plan, and fortunately Firefighters saw value in (Sun).”

Laurendeau predicted that consolidations will continue, based on factors including the need to attract younger members, the growing costs of meeting new regulations that smaller credit unions might find hard to absorb, and the looming retirements of leaders of many credit unions formed decades ago. He added that he's “pretty optimistic” another deal for Firefighters could materialize in 2015 that would bring the credit union into yet another new market. But those talks are early on. Firefighters' other mergers in recent years were also partly driven by retirements of the acquired credit unions' CEOs.

Laurendeau describes Firefighters as a “breakout” credit union partly because of its “very serious strategy” to establish itself as a “true community financial institution” with a broader footprint and expansive membership base.

“But we certainly are not attempting to put any credit unions out of business or steal other business from other credit unions,” he said.

Beyond accomplishing Firefighters' various growth goals of branches, members and assets, chief marketing officer Jennifer Norris said the acquisition of Sun benefits the latter's members by offering contemporary, technology-driven services like text and email alerts, remote deposit and a mobile app. Firefighters also is a member of a shared-branching network — a national network of credit unions that allows the cooperative sharing of more than 5,000 facilities across the country.
“This collaborative partnership will provide our Lorain County members much more technology, services and locations in our immediate area,” Hammond said. “In addition, it affords Firefighters members in Cuyahoga County the same benefits.”

Firefighters was founded in 1936 exclusively for members of its namesake safety force. The credit union opened membership up to all in 2005. But while the institution continues to evolve, there aren't any plans to change the name.

“The history and heritage of our credit union is very important to our board,” Laurendeau said.