The SAFE/BECU Mega Merger: The SAFE Annual Meeting - "Showtime In Sacramento!"

                                                             🎉🎉🎉  The 2026 SAFE Credit Union Annual Meeting 🎉🎉🎉                       Tuesday April 21, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. [link]                                                All current SAFE members are invited to attend!

✅ Credit Union mergers have become the most controversial topic within the credit union movement - signaling the end of an era, the end of an idea? The SAFE/BECU merger - surprise announced without SAFE member input in November, 2025 - has become the poster child for that debate. 

The SAFE CEO and Board have refused to release financial details of the proposed agreement to the SAFE members - the owners and shareholders of the credit union!  SAFE member-owners had never called for the merger, nor has any member group advocated that it be pursued. Who actually benefits from this merger?

The SAFE Annual membership meeting tonight should shed some much needed light on the controversy. Merger critics from the SAFE membership have broadly sounded the alarm all across California!

 ✔ Get ready, get out the popcorn, it looks to be "Showtime in Sacramento"...!

😎 According to the management "Me's", the pluses: 

 "This partnership is a powerful alignment of purpose and potential that leverages our strengths and recognizes our shared values," said Faye Nabhani, President and Chief Executive Officer of SAFE Credit Union. 

😎 According to the SAFE "member mutineers", the minuses:

1. The loss of California regulatory jurisdiction and consumer protection. The transfer of $4.3 billion in assets belonging to 245,000 SAFE member-owners to an out-of-state credit union and the termination of SAFE’s charter will completely eliminate DFCI oversight. Consumer protection under the BECU charter will become the responsibility of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI). There will be no accountability to former SAFE members, all of whom are citizens of California.

2. The transfer without member-owner compensation or benefit of all current resources and future earnings of a successful, locally supported eighty-five year financial enterprise has no economic rationale. The gifting of all SAFE assets, all future control, and all future earnings to BECU based solely on vague future promises is nothing less than a legally sanctioned theft of SAFE member resources. The true market value of SAFE Credit Union is $600 million to $800 million.  SAFE members-owners will receive nothing from this transaction. All $4.3 billion in SAFE Credit Union member-owner assets will be handed over to BECU. All $345 million in member-owner equity will be taken from member-owners without compensation.

3. The loss of critical competitive advantage and local owner governance. 
SAFE Credit Union’s competitive advantage is its unique responsiveness to its member-owners and the priorities of the local community. This has enabled SAFE to establish a dominant regional market position that cannot be easily replicated. When SAFE becomes a branch operation for BECU, this will be lost. Governance will be relinquished to an out-of-state entity which will dictate all services, products and pricing. The interests of SAFE Credit Union member-owners and the Sacramento region will become a secondary consideration for BECU. BECU’s sole interest is in gaining control of an established institution without investing the time and resources necessary to secure a market position in a major metropolitan region outside of its current service area.

4. Breach of fiduciary duty and a manipulated democratic voting process
A violation of fiduciary duty has occurred because the SAFE Credit Union Board of Directors deliberated in secrecy and has not acted in the best interests of the member-owners. The fiduciary duty of care and loyalty to the membership has been disregarded. This board does not represent the best interests of the member-owners because it has subverted and manipulated the democratic election process by deliberately excluding the membership from board representation. 

  "Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of a cancer cell." 

 

The SAFE/BECU Mega-Me Merger: Another Blue Light Special?

      +++                                     The Original Mega-Me?

 [2005] "A resurgent Kmart, home of the blue light special, is buying the once-dominant Sears department store chain in a surprising $11 billion gamble. The combined company is expected to have $55 billion in annual revenues, 2,350 full-line and off-mall stores, and 1,100 specialty retail stores."

Kmart CEO Ed Lampert and Sears chairman Alan Lacy, in announcing the deal on Wednesday, promised up to $500 million a year in savings within three years from store conversions, back-office job cuts, more efficient buying of goods and possible store closings.  

✅ "It's an opportunity to transform two companies that once were great, into a great company relative to the 21st century. A key part of increasing productivity at the stores will be in the cross selling of the brands." 

"I think there's a presumption that you're going to see a lot of store closings. That's a wrong presumption, .... while some layoffs will be announced by the end of April, the vast majority of the work force of 400,000 will keep their jobs, Lampert said.  We are determined to be successful."

Company officials said the merger would help make their properties more profitable through a broader retail presence and improved operational efficiency in areas such as procurement, marketing, information technology and supply chain management. "The combination will greatly strengthen both the Sears and Kmart franchises, " Lacy said. "This will clearly be a win for both companies' customers, while significantly enhancing value for all shareholders."  

"CEO Alan Lacy will pocket about $27 million as a result of the merger." 

 "This partnership is a powerful alignment of purpose and potential that leverages our strengths and recognizes our shared values," said Faye Nabhani, President and Chief Executive Officer of SAFE Credit Union. 

😎 There are 5 Sears stores left in the United States as of September 7, 2025. The following stores were closed in 2021: Sacramento, CA, Boyle Heights, CA, Clovis, CA, Downey, CA, Long Beach, CA, Los Altos, CA,  Orange, CA, Pasadena, CA  Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Tukwila, WA was closed in 2024!

😎 As of November 6, 2025, there are only 3 remaining US Kmart store locations still open with only 1 in the contiguous United States in Miami, Florida.  

 Just sayin'...