Amaranth CU potential merger with Access CU | AcceleRate Financial | Discussion forum

The Manitoba village of Amaranth is part of the rural municipality of Alonsa. Population of Alonsa is around 1,200.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Amaranth CU "serves 1,200 members and has $18 million in assets."

Shawguy said
https://www.chrisd.ca/2022/07/30/access-amaranth-credit-unions-merger-discussions/

Wasn't sure to post on the Accelerate or Hubert forum since they are both owned by parent company Access CU.

Back in 2021 Access CU merged with Crosstown Civic CU (Accelerate) and then now in 2022 with Sunova CU (Hubert) and Noventis CU. Now it appears they want to merge with Amaranth (one location).

Access CU has become the largest CU in Manitoba in less than 2 years.  

This is a reasonable forum, though I probably would`ve gone with either (a) the Hubert Financial forum, given that Hubert Financial is almost certainly to be the surviving virtual banking divisional brand once the full integration with Access takes place or, even better, (b) the `General financial discussion` forum. 🙂

While Access may well be the largest Manitoba credit union, by some metrics, I do not expect it to last. I fully expect that you will see Assiniboine, Cambrian, and Steinbach become more aggressive in finding target credit unions with which to merge and, if they can put away their egos, to two out of the three merging, creating a second large Manitoba credit union that will be a constant back-and-forth with Access on who is larger.

I also expect you`ll see some of the seven virtual banking divisions fade away, given how difficult it is gain members, and deposits, with each passing year. Some attract fewer than 100 new members per year (and that`s before accounting for members lost to death, given the aging demographic of their memberships, or other reasons); the largest attract about 1,000 or more members per year.

Some prognostications, with no timelines on when these will occur:

* AcceleRate Financial is merged into Hubert Financial, though Hubert Financial will adopt the AcceleRate Financial online banking platform and the Access Credit Union core banking system;
* MAXA Financial is merged into either of Hubert Financial, Achieva Financial, or Outlook Financial, when Westoba Credit Union ultimately agrees, possibly somewhat reluctantly, to a merger with either of the Access, Cambrian, or Assiniboine credit unions in the next relatively big merger to occur. Wild card: Steinbach Credit Union may propose a marriage, and MAXA Financial may well survive as a separate divisional brand, or it may disappear as Steinbach has always eschewed separate brands
* Ideal Savings is merged into either of Casera Financial (in a relative merger of equals) as part of a merger with Casera Credit Union, or into either of Hubert Financial or Outlook Financial as part of a merger with either of Access or Assiniboine credit unions

Medium-term, I`m targeting four (4) virtual banking brands, with the likely `survivors` to be Achieva, Outlook, Hubert, and Casera.

And, don`t forget, a few years ago, all Manitoba credit unions, barring a couple small ones, and the Caisse Financial Group, opened up their mainline credit unions to new members from outside of Manitoba. The Caisse will allow non-Manitoba residents, but doesn`t have a fully virtual account opening system.

Cheers,
Doug