This commentary is by Wally Farnum, former board chair of the VSECU, and Steven Post, former CEO of the VSECU.
We attended the recent member forum on the proposed VSECU/NEFCU merger, held at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. It proved to be a respectable town hall meeting with the open exchange of opinions and concerns.
After all was said and done, though, we came away more convinced than ever that this merger is not in the best interests of VSECU members.
Though a good effort was made to sell the merger, after over two hours of trying, several attendees noted that there was still no compelling reason given why members should choose to give away their independent, 75-year-old, successful, strong credit union.
In fact, the CEOs of both VSECU and NEFCU stated that each credit union would be perfectly fine if this merger did not happen.
The claim that this merger will in any significant way improve our competitive position against the financial services strategies of Apple, Walmart and Chase did not fall on deaf ears, but did fall on smart ears.
The thought that this merger will somehow change the dynamics of Vermont’s environmental and housing challenges sounds good, but is not backed up with specific information how that will happen. Each credit union is already independently working hard on those issues.
The supposed rate and fee advantages of this merger really only point out that current management has chosen to be noncompetitive with some rates and fees, and is now presenting that poor decision as a reason to merge. Those managers have fabricated conditions that make the merger appear beneficial.
Time and time again, representatives of VSECU just repeated the company line: Trust us; bigger will be better. And still, what is noticeably missing is any acknowledgment of what will be lost with this merger.
The answer to that is clear to us and we think pretty clear to the forum attendees. The credit union built by Vermonters for Vermonters will be gone and in its place will be a single dominant institution with visions far beyond Vermont borders.
During a discussion at the forum about the loss of the Vermont State Employees Credit Union name, one attendee summed the situation up quite nicely when she said: “There is no Vermont in New England Federal Credit Union.”
Oppose the merger. Visit callingallmembers.org to learn how.
