ROSETOWN, Saskatchewan–Three credit unions in rural Saskatchewan are looking to merge.
Members of Prairie Center Credit Union in Rosetown, Cypress Credit Union in Maple Creek, and Diamond North Credit Union in Debden plan to put a three-way-combination to a member vote in September, with a Jan. 1 target date for completion if approved.
The trio of financial institutions have all had long-standing working relationships with one another for years and talks between them about combining began in December of 2023, according to WestCentralOnline.com.
According to the report, Blair Wingert, the CEO of Prairie Centre Credit Union since March of 2022, would become the CEO of the proposed credit union.
‘Systemwide Issues’
"A number of system-wide issues are elevating the costs as well as just making it more and more difficult to operate at smaller financial institutions," Wingert told WestCentralOnline.com. "I think that's where conversations have initiated from. What we're trying to do here is, form a rural alternative. We're trying to gather some scale and scope by bringing some like-minded rural-based credit unions together. It might be an alternative for other credit unions in the future to join. It's a big focus on rural Saskatchewan, a big focus on the agriculture sector, and just keeping those services in our communities."
Would Create Fourth-Largest CU
Should the merger be approved, it would create the fourth-largest CU in Saskatchewan with more than 36,000 members and over $2.5 billion in assets.
The three credit unions combine to have 30 locations, with 14 southwest branches in Rosetown, Eatonia, Eston, Elrose, Kyle, Beechy, Dinsmore, Outlook, Elbow, Lornburn, Harris, Richmound, Fox Valley, and Burstall.
According to the report, before members cast their votes in September, the three credit unions will spend the next few months engaging with them beginning with open house road shows. Each CEO will visit all of their branch locations this month to help inform their clients of the proposal.
How to Sign Up For the Best Daily News Email in Credit Unions? (It’s Free!)
Every workday CUToday.info delivers the most comprehensive, freshest daily newsletter with the day’s news headlines, including links to the related articles. The Fresh Today newsletter is the most timely, relevant and widely-read source of news and information in the CU community. And it’s free!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties,
And did we mention it’s free?