PITTSFIELD, Mass.—Another small credit union is throwing in the towel due to growing regulatory burden.
The $12-million Berkshire Federal Credit Union and Greylock FCU have announced plans to merge. The board of directors of both organizations have approved the consolidation, as well as NCUA.
When the deal is completed mid-September, Greylock—the continuing credit union—will have $1.08 billion in assets, and 73,585 members.
All five BFCU employees will continue with Greylock. Berkshire Federal's manager and president, Evelyn Torrey, is retiring, but will remain with Greylock through the transition until the end of this year. She told the Berkshire Eagle the consolidation is just another in a growing line of small CUs that can’t survive under mounting compliance pressures.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult to comply with all the rules and regulations from the regulatory agencies," Torrey told the newspaper. "In order to comply, you either have to hire outside help or people on your current staff do this. Next year, my understanding is the regulations are going to become much more restrictive."
She said the "dragging" economy combined with the continued low interest rates have also affected Berkshire Federal's bottom line. Under the terms of its charter, Berkshire Federal had very little room to expand.
"We have been facing a slow decline of our capital over the last few years," Torrey said, "to where the board of directors looked at what are our alternatives."