On December 15, members of Bemis Federal Credit Union (Bemis FCU) will officially become members of Cascade Forest Products Federal Credit Union (CFPFCU) following a merger recently approved by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and Washington state financial regulators.
The change is unlikely to be felt by members of either credit union, since Bemis FCU has been co-located on the CFPFCU site on Jefferson Street since 2010.
According to Bemis FCU CEO Bonnie Cosgrove, the Bemis Bag Company asked the credit union to leave the plant in 2009. When looking for new digs, Cosgrove said, CFPFCU seemed like a natural choice, as they were nearby and had a similar paper products background.
Besides not having their own building, Cosgrove said two other factors led to the merger. First, she wanted to retire, as did the board members. Bemis FCU has only about 400 members, and Cosgrove said it was difficult to find new managers for such a small credit union. Second, Cosgrove said, new rules and regulations as well as customer expectations for new services such as online banking, were making it prohibitively expensive to run a small credit union. So when Lori Olson, CEO at CFPFCU, approached Cosgrove about a possible merger, Cosgrove said she “thought it was a good fit.”
Unlike Bemis FCU, which serves only employees of the Vancouver Bemis manufacturing plant, CFPFCU serves Boise Cascade and Office Max employees all over the United States, including Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, California, Oregon, Washington and several other states. Additionally, its charter allows it to serve anyone who lives, works, or worships in Washington state. Currently, CFPFCU has about 1800 members, not counting the new ones coming in from Bemis FCU.
Credit Union growth
Olson said that besides the influx of Bemis FCU members, CFPFCU is also experiencing growth as a result of people transferring their accounts from “mega banks.” The Credit Union National Association (CUNA), a credit-union advocacy group, recently issued a statement claiming an estimated 650,000 consumers have joined credit unions nationwide since Sept. 29, the day Bank of America announced it was going to charge a fee for debit card use – a program they have since canceled.
After the merger, previous Bemis FCU members will have access to a much wider range of services, according to Olson, such as online banking, the credit union’s website, ATM cards and checking accounts. Once the merger is complete, Olson said, she has plans to contact Bemis Bag Company plants in other regions.
“We’re excited to talk to other Bemis employees – we’re used to giving service from a distance,” she said.
