Three of New Brunswick’s biggest credit unions have voted to merge into one entity.
The new Brunswick Credit Union will be the province’s biggest credit union, with $870 million in assets and 34,000 members. The merged credit union will be comprised of Bayview Credit Union, Advance Savings Credit Union, and Progressive Credit Union.
Brunswick Credit Union will be led by Lisa Loughery, the current CEO of Bayview Credit Union. Advance Savings CEO Derek Ellard and Progressive CEO Rhonda Calhoun will both hold key leadership positions within the new entity.
“It’s exciting,” Loughery said. “All three credit unions will have representation in senior leadership roles. It will help with our transition. Their expertise is invaluable.”
What will that mean for the membership?
“Hopefully better rates“ Loughery hinted. “With that combined resources we should be able to offer to members things we couldn’t necessarily do on our own.”
Although the vote has resulted in a new organization, Bayview, Advance Savings and Progressive will all maintain their current look and feel, including their names. All of the three credit unions’ 14 branches will be maintained in the merger.
“The members will still get to see their local credit union because what we’ve proposed is that our local credit unions will not change. So we will still be seen as Bayview Financial, Advance Financial, and Progressive Financial and all three be a new division of the new credit union, Brunswick,” Loughery explained.
“For our employees, it means there’s more opportunity for professional development, more specialized roles, for flexibility,” she said.
Ninety-five percent of voters supported the merger, with a total of 3863 votes being cast. For each vote cast, one dollar was donated to the New Brunswick Food Depot.
Brunswick Credit Union will officially launch on January 1, 2023. It will serve the communities of Moncton, Petitcodiac, Rexton, Riverview, Hampton, Saint John, St. George, Rothesay, Sussex, Fredericton, Centreville and Woodstock.
Alex Graham is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
