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Email this3:49 pm
August 28, 2013
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Assiniboine Credit Union is merging with Access Credit Union Limited creating Access Credit Union Limited as of October 01, 2015.
Meaning Access bought Assiniboine and Outlook Financial?
3:52 pm
December 23, 2011
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Was either one of them in financial difficulty? Often is the reason to merge. IE one needs a new system and can't afford so they merge to another with a good system.
4:04 pm
August 4, 2010
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Assiniboine is twice as large ($3.6 billion in assets) as Access and is probably driving this. Outlook is Assiniboine's online arm. Access is, I think, mainly in small Manitoba towns, and this probably gives them a hookup with a larger organization rather than try and build yet another set of Winnipeg branches.
This will make Assiniboine the largest ($5.4+ billion in assets) Manitoba CU, passing Steinbach ($4.2 billion). I doubt Access was in any difficulty, aside from maybe having tough growth prospects.
4:29 pm
December 3, 2014
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Access has been gobbling up a lot of smaller credit unions in south central Manitoba,so they have had a lot of practice doing mergers.
Even though Assiniboine is much bigger,I hear the new merged credit union is to be called Access Credit Union.
5:03 pm
December 12, 2009
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This isn't a corporate takeover in the traditional sense but rather a true "merger of equals" as the two credit unions are legally amalgamated into one entity. As Assiniboine has the larger deposit/asset and membership bases, they are definitely the ones calling the shots in terms of structure (i.e., resulting name and number & composition of the Board of Directors). I suspect the reason the "Access" branding was chosen is because Assiniboine wanted a name that was more generic and not geographic-specific and they thought they'd use the existing name "Access" in the amalgamated entity rather than think of a totally new name. I suspect that's what at play here. 
Mergers are a great opportunity for name changes and rebranding.
Is it a great name? No, it's kind of "ho hum". They could've called themselves Outlook Financial Credit Union and simply renamed the direct banking operation the "Direct Bank Branch" of "Outlook Financial Credit Union". Alas, I digress. 
Doug
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