Spokane Teachers Credit Union will acquire Community Bank, a 10-branch bank based in Joseph, Oregon, the institutions announced Tuesday.
The 69-year-old bank and its $550 million in assets will join STCU to create a $6.4 billion-asset institution with 49 branches in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
The transaction is expected to close in early 2025. STCU plans to retain all Community Bank employees if the deal goes through, it said.
“As the banking and business environment of our region grows increasingly competitive, this transaction with STCU will ensure expanded product offerings, more locations, and a continued high level of services,” Community Bank CEO Tom Moran said in a prepared statement.
He noted that both institutions “share common core values, with a strong focus on supporting the financial wellbeing of our customers, communities and employees.”
STCU CEO Ezra Eckhardt said the deal aligns with the credit union’s focus on rural communities.
Existing STCU members who live in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington will have more convenient access to in-person banking when Community Bank is brought under its umbrella, the credit union said.
“[F]ace-to-face interaction continues to be an important part of the STCU member experience,” Eckhardt said.
Credit unions around the country have been buying up banks in recent years. In 2024 alone, this marks the 13th proposed acquisition of a whole bank by a credit union. Three more deals have seen credit unions move to buy partial branch footprints of banks.
Notably, this is the year’s fifth proposed credit union-bank transaction to involve a Washington state institution. Richland-based Gesa Credit Union announced its plans to acquire Centralia-based Security State Bank in May. Lakewood-based Harborstone Credit Union said it would acquire Burlington-based SaviBank in March.
Additionally, Tacoma-based Sound Credit Union said it would acquire Olympia-based Washington Business Bank. And Anchorage, Alaska-based Global Federal Credit Union agreed to acquire Renton-based First Financial Northwest Bank in January.
In response to an inquiry about a potential reason for the regional cluster, Honigman attorney Michael Bell, who has advised several institutions on mergers and acquisitions, said Washington “is like other states (Florida, Illinois, etc…) that is home to a good number of great community financial institutions.”
“This just makes it ripe in the sense that more buyers and sellers exist there,” he said, adding that he expects more deals to be announced in the Pacific Northwest and expects “record levels of activity” in 2024.
Credit unions proposed to buy a record 16 whole banks in 2022, and this year has been on pace to easily surpass that. Tuesday’s announcement ends a 70-day lull since Michigan’s ELGA Credit Union said it would buy Marine Bank – the longest deal drought of 2024.
“Deals take time to come together and not all of them do. There is an ebb and flow naturally,” Bell said. “We have a multitude of deal[s] in the hopper working their way to the finish line.”
The STCU-Community deal has unanimous support from both institutions’ boards of directors but requires shareholder approval and regulatory approval from the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation, the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, the National Credit Union Administration and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
