GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—CU*Answers is reporting it is seeing an uptick in merger-related activity.
The credit union-owned data processor said it is presently scheduled to perform 15 credit union mergers during the 2015 fiscal year, which runs from October to September, up from nine in 2014. Of the fifteen mergers, 11 involve credit unions coming onto the CU*Answers CU*BASE system; the other four are merging into a non-CU*BASE credit union. The mergers have resulted in a net increase of 33,000 new members on the CU*Answers platform.
CU*Answers said it realized that mergers were a growing business strategy for credit unions a few years ago and rolled out special pricing for their credit unions. To help with the financial cost of a merger, if the merging credit union is not currently on the CU*BASE system, CU*Answers will waive the base per member processing cost for the first year.