California Screamin'

   Unbearable!

   ✔ ... and unbelievable! Cal Toast? Here's the skinny:[link] 

What a mess! So now you know the truth, credit union mergers come with brass-knuckles, not kumbayah! 

Boards and CEO's are on a mission of me-first, more than member-first. The gloves have been taken off, the "faux cooperative purpose", now so in-artfully and embarrassingly exposed. 

✅ So how can one make chicken salad out of this chicken mess? God Only Knows!*

Imagine this! SAFE CU (remember them! [link]) steps in with a counter-offer to takeover Cal Coast CU, creating a statewide, California-based, California-led, California-focused powerhouse with @ $8 billion in assets, 450,000 members, 45 California branches, no overlap, no layoffs! California Dreamin'!*

To make it happen! SAFE in addition to merging, agrees to pay each and every Cal Coast member a "Welcome to the SAFE credit union" introductory bonus of $500 in cash! That's right, each Cal Coast member receives $500 bucks! Hey, let the Cal Coast members vote on it! Surf's up!*

SAFE would remain a strong, well-capitalized credit union (10.3+%!) with better rates and lower operating costs. No compliance or control issues! A statewide footprint. Don't Worry Baby!* 

And, if the new SAFE/Cal Coast Credit Union needs a sound, experienced, "no mess" leader to heard the chickens...  

Bring back Henry Wirz! - the most trusted credit union leader in California, who led SAFE CU for over 30+ years, with honor and integrity. I Get Around!*

😎  Now that really is a kumbayah moment, with good, good... Good Vibrations!* 

 Yeah!... Wouldn't It Be Nice!* 

*  California's favorite sons: The Beach Boys. 

Credit Union Mergers: "The Most Unkindest Cut Of All" And...

   

                   The Ultimate Betrayal.

✔ Life teaches some hard lessons about trust.  Lessons each of us has learned the hard way. 

We find through painful experience, that ideas, institutions, and people we hold dear often fail the test. Belief betrayed is rarely recovered. There is a fine line in our hearts, once crossed cannot... 

It's a really tough slog trying to convince credit union members that a massive betrayal of trust is underway in the credit union movement.That's normal because by definition betrayal always comes as a surprise to the unsuspecting.

Have aired several posts "The Godfather Mergers" [link], using the proposed merger between SAFE and BECU as an example [link] [link] [link], to try and demonstrate why many CU mergers don't appear to be in the financial best interests of member-owners. Clearly, at least, a merger is not the only choice... and is rarely the best choice for most members. [link]

Probably not making much progress on enlightening members, regulators and our political leaders on how severe the merger/conversion threat has become The venomous head of the merger snake hasn't fanged close to home for most... yet!

But hello, perhaps now it has! Take a look at what is happening with this other California merger - Cal Coast and SDCCU. So now you can see the raw, be-slimed underbelly of these "kumbayah, merger of equals"... lawsuits, feckless management, greed and self-interest, accusations of criminality, non-compliance, and breach of trust. [link]

😎 BTW, Mr. Todd Lane, CEO of Cal Coast, who appears to have his knickers around his knees in this saga, earned his credentials as CFO at Wescorp [link]... remember them? 

No surprise, Wescorp produced so many fine leaders for the credit union movement...

 ... yes, several real gems!

Credit Unions: Conspicuous Complicity?

Lighting it up...!

WELL!  As they say, quite a few CU marketeers got "their boxers in a wad" over the Filene's marketing post yesterday! [link]   

The "incoming twittery" was just more of the same old stuff ("SOS")....  A few flashes of madness and originality would have been much more interesting.  

If you aspire to be a thoughtful and effective CU marketeer, it might be wise and necessary for you to spend some time with Thorstein Veblen and his work "The Theory of the Leisure Class".  Believe it or not; despite being an economist, Veblen's fun! ("The most impressive satirist of his day." -- Time Magazine)  

Perhaps you need to read Veblen simply because you would like to consider where your moral compass should point, as a cooperative, non-profit leader in a for-profit, take no prisoners, "buyer beware" world. Veblen, the economist who created the phrase "conspicuous consumption", will not only make you think; he may help you choose: for-profit or not-for-profit, truth or whatever, sinner or saint?

Mr. Veblen challenges you to consider the hard-edged realities of an

"WE-aSELL" !!

impersonal, industrialized economy, juiced-up by advertising and consumption... with AI waiting in the wings! 

But even back in 1899, Thorstein Veblen was not optimistic about the logical "endgame" of a race to the bottom in a marketplace, increasingly unrestrained by local accountability, with uncertain ethical values, and flexible moral scruples.  

Veblen predicted that marketing would eventually feature the following:

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

OF MODERN MARKETING? 

(Future predictions from 1899!) 

• Attention to overstatement
• Fabricated demand
• A low traffic in salesmanship
• Promises much, delivers the minimum
• Promises much, delivers nothing of value
• Creates an artificial scarcity
• Enlarges the list of life's "necessities"
• Downplays the truth, implies the false
• Encourages contemptuous consumption
• Promises a margin of something for nothing

✔ "Veblen saw greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy, and  examined the human cost paid when social institutions exploit it for the sake of personal profit." 

 

Are we there yet CU marketeers?

 

The Credit Union Movement Closeout Sale?

  "You're doing what?!"

Been having several Edward Filene Moments over the last few days as the discussion gains heat on monkeyshine mergers and the rise of the "me/me/me" credit union.  Everyone associated with credit unions knows that Mr. Filene was the principal benefactor and key driving force behind the creation of the credit union movement in the U.S.

What many forget is that Mr. Filene was also a truly world class innovator  in "merchandize -zing" - the Steve Jobs-like retailing sensation of his era. His flagship store was Filene's in Boston and his "guy in a garage", retailing innovation-incubator was the famous Filene's Basement.

Edward Filene was a creative genius with an entrepreneurial spirit, who  introduced many of the core sales and marketing techniques still used today. As a marketeer extraordinaire, Filene invented concepts like  "fixed price/same price for all" , "XX% OFF" discounts, "two-fers", BOGO's, closeout sales, and the lay-away plan.  The store also bought seasonal "close-outs" from high-end retailers and resold them for a fraction of the sticker price. Fashionistas scoured 'the Basement' for great values, and there were lots of them.   

 

The store was most notorious for its annual wedding gown sale, which featured the same high-end apparel, and came to be known as "the Annual Running of the Brides"; because of the large crowds that would form at the door, and the mad dash that would take place toward the racks, when the doors swung open. Filene knew how to create sales excitement and shopping frenzies in the department store space!  
  

Part of Mr. Filene's great interest in the credit union movement was to help create a source of credit for working men and women, so that they could purchase some of the "small luxuries" in life "on installments." Fair and reasonably priced credit gave workers greater purchasing power... at places like Filene's Basement!   Filene most certainly understood his business, but more importantly he understood human nature, which made his fortune!

 

In 1928 Filene was ousted from store management by his fellow stockholders who were "troubled by his liberal management policies" ["like same price for all"]. Edward Filene was not "industry standard"!  He died in 1937 and President Roosevelt had this (and more!) to say about him:

 

"Mr. Filene was more than a champion of popular rights. He was a prophet who perceived the true meaning of these changing times. He was able to make plain to us that our modern mechanism of abundance cannot be kept in operation unless the masses of our people are enabled to live abundantly. His democracy was more than a tradition. He did not repudiate the past, after the fashion of some reformers, nor did he repudiate the future after the fashion of those who fear reform. He believed in learning and searching out the ways of human progress." 

 

The store, on the other hand, became a victim of its initial success. Ultimately, Filene's was milked and me/me/me'd into oblivion by profiteers who "rebranded" Filene's from something quite different...  into something which made no difference at all. 

 

No presidential eulogy has been found praising their efforts...   

A business no longer works, if it no longer really matters.

The Credit Union Masquerade...

     ... Two-faced?

Hope you took a look at the new Lending Hope Initiative, featured in yesterday's post. [link].  The Initiative has few peers in the power and clarity of its' mission and messaging!  

The Initiative's mission is to lend local folks money in hard times, right? No, not really. The Initiative is pursuing a much higher calling! Their name says it all...   

✔ Lending Hope Initiative is lending hope to their neighbors in Warren County, North Carolina. 

Lending money is important and necessary, but is little more than a routine, run-of-the-mill financial transaction. Lending hope is a transaction of higher purpose - aimed at the heart, aimed at the soul. An effort to be something more.

"Hope for the best"; "our hopes and dreams"; "to have high hopes"; "a ray of hope"; "to hope against hope"; "our last, best hope"; "hope springs eternal"; "to keep hope alive"... we all need hope.  

✔ Nobody ever hopes to be poor...

Credit unions use to be skilled at both lending and hope, but not so much anymore. Instead, our focus seems to be on meaningless "market-share", narcissistic naming rights, and the proliferation of the "me/me/me" merger. All gussied up, with feigned member focus and contrived financial benefits. 

😎 Our favorite troll-twits of course don't get it, probably never have, never will: "Not sure what the point of this post is. This is what credit unions do everyday." [Anonymous February 7, 2026]

✅  The point is: Lending hope is no longer "what me/me/me credit unions do everyday". The credit union movement's war on poverty is ending... those "of modest means" have lost.

     Why deprive someone of hope?... it might be all they have. 

Real People Helping People...

"Ceremony Marks Launch of Lending Hope Initiative... "

 

✅  The Warren Record: February 4, 2026 [link]

Warren County, North Carolina lies below the southern border of Virginia along the Roanoke River. In the 1840's Warren was the wealthiest county in North Carolina, not so much anymore. The Civil War, the advent of the railroads, Jim Crow, and the decline in tobacco and textiles all took their toll. The population is @ 20,000 and declining, median household income is $34,000. Warren County is wooded and rural, civility remains the norm, church-going expected. Folks, for the most part, are personable and caring, families are still tight. It's a nice place to live.

Lending Hope Initiative: "Our mission is to offer small, interest-free loans that assist applicants in managing rent, mortgage payments, utility bills, and deposits." To apply, you must live in Warren County, provide proof of income, and work with volunteers to prepare a budget. The applicant will sign a repayment agreement. "When the money comes back, we will lend to someone else in need." 

✔ What a novel, innovative idea!  Cooperative, community lending to a limited group, sharing a common bond, on a non-profit basis. "I hope a more sustainable model can get going..." [Any ideas?] 

😎 As a credit union, you only become irrelevant, when you're no longer different - just another "industry standard" insignificance, just another unexceptional commodity. A masquerade...

 The original purpose for a credit union may have become lost, the need for credit unions hasn't ! 

 

Credit Union Mergers and Consolidation: A "Clear-cut" Concern ...

 Ever notice how frequently we seem to forget the original insight underlying our castles of complexity?  

Simple truths, like simple pleasures, are often overlooked in our rush from moment to monument.                      

 

Chanced into several patches of clarity recently on the West Coast in Calaveras County. Had ventured west to see the California redwoods. Calaveras County has two of the last remaing groves of these magnificent trees. 

A "Sequoia" redwood is a perfect example of the expression, "You have to see it to believe it." A 300-foot tall tree, 30 feet in circumference? No Easterner will ever accept on faith that the "first limb 150 feet up (!) on the General Sherman Sequoia tree is larger than any tree east of the Mississippi River".  

It's kind of difficult to exaggerate about a Sequoia. "Discovered" in 1852 by Augustus T. Dowd, one of the largest trees was cut and a section shipped east for exhibition. A tree of such size was unthinkable in New York and Boston and the exhibit was roundly branded a hoax. The stump of that tree, by the way, was later covered with a pavilion and used as a dance hall!

Clearly, a case where one can't see the tree for the forests....    

 You may get some feel for the enormous size of these trees when you consider that you've never seen a photograph of all of a Sequoia.   

 

You've seen the bottom part or the top half, but a "full length" photo is a rarity. To capture the full height of a Sequoia requires that you step back so far that you lose perspective!  Sequoias are found only in limited groves in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and require a delicate balance of climate, rainfall, altitude and soil type to prosper. 

 

These giants have extremely shallow root systems and therefore rely heavily on the dense forest for protection against erosion and the forces of the wind. For support and survival, the fragile Sequoia requires the presence of a complex ecosystem, including ponderosa and sugar pines, white fir, dogwood, bracken ferns, incense cedar and an active creek.

Any message here? I thought there might be several... 

The credit union movement represents a dynamic, finely-balanced, eco-financial system. There are many ferns, cedars, firs and ponderosa pines in the CU movement – and yes, a few Sequoias. A substantial amount of "logging" is going on in "our forest." Whether the cutting tools are mergers, liquidations or consolidations; the end result of the current process seems pretty "clear cut". Have we overlooked the fact that even Sequoias, when left standing alone, stripped of support and protection, are unable to resist "the elements"?

Maybe as a movement we've made the choice against "conservation" and I just missed the debate. Maybe we really know where we're going with this furious logging activity. Maybe we shouldn't worry about reforestation. 

 

But... It's a well-known fact that new Sequoias do not sprout from the stumps of past cuttings.  Could the stumps in Calaveras County be eloquent reminders for credit unions of how often our failure to consider the future becomes an irretrievable mistake?  

 

Some CU folks seem to have an  axe - of personal self-interest - to grind on this matter. 

 

😎 On this issue, shouldn't we put aside the axe and sharpen our wits first?

As the saying goes... 

"The first rule of tinkering is to save all the parts."

A Mixed Message...?

    

✓ TrollTwit: "You are diluted if you believe that credit unions are different."

   Dilutional? A forgone confusional by a "new/new" self-delusional? ... not unusual!

North Carolina's Outer Banks (OBX)...

      Snow Banks: There is a Difference! 

   

                  ... some days it is hard to tell!

 ✅ "SECU closed out January with a flurry of activity…"

  ... actually a flurry of inactivity?

The Difference Between An Industry And A Movement?

 

 It's a different way of walking... [link]

✅ Anonymous January 20, 2026 at 11:33 AM

Exactly the mentality that harms the industry. Many credit union leaders don’t accept reality, can’t adapt, and think they are part of a movement (or even want to be, for that matter). They come up for air just long enough to claim everyone else is becoming a bank.

😎 ... a difference in purpose, a difference in principles. a difference in conscience ... a difference in understanding.

  Walk the talk... teach your children! 

 

 

 

CU Mergers Made Easy: Your DIY Formula For Excess... "Together We Can!"

  "A merger of equals!"

🔲 [Check as appropriate] 

🔲 Dateline: [Enter city, state and effective date] 

🔲 The Boards of Directors of [enter name of predator] Credit Union and [enter name of mouse] Credit Union have unanimously approved a fantastically visionary merger of equals, more or less. 

🔲 Today, we begin the robust, self-realization of our shared mission and journey toward boundless possibilities in service to our [enter current #] members and our eight billion potential members worldwide. A brave new world no longer constrained by a deeply-rooted community. The world will be our oyster! 

🔲 This transition is Darwinian, creating a world-class financial corporation; delivering market leading global access; cutting-edge, mission critical digital capabilities; and of course, our "always-thinking-of-you", member-first approach. We haven't been able to figure this out separately, but together we can!   

🔲 Our unified credit union will possess the scalability necessary to deliver greater value to our members, while streamlining business processes to conserve organizational resources, and achieve business objectives. Not to mention being flexible, low cost, and user-friendly!  We haven't been able to  figure this out separately, but together we can!   

🔲 By joining forces, we are purposefully building something different: a financial partnership, which designs next generation, best-of-breed experiences, that are interoperable, forward-thinking, and life-enhancing! We haven't been able to figure this out separately, but together we can!   

🔲 Our dreams are elucidations of your dreams. Our credit union is your solution!  You don't know how to dream really big, but together we can!

 🔲 "This transition is more than a milestone - it's a launchpad!"  Step-by-step we will climb together toward the beyond, then throw away the ladder! Watch us sour soar, together we can! 

 🔲 [Upload "GlamCam" vanity selfie] 

   Be sure to "Vote for More"... for us! 

Looks Like An Easy Choice For The SECU Board...

                    

Board of Directors Applicant Form

✅ From: Julian Hawes 
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2026 8:24 PM
To: Stelfanie Williams <stelfamie.williams@board.ncsecu.org>

Cc: Mark Fleming ; Ben McLawhorn ; Chris Ayers ; Chuck Stone ; Michael Clements;

McKinley Wooten  Bob Brinson ; Amaka Flynn; cc: Brady, Leigh  

Subject: Board Nomination

I noticed on your website that there is a vacancy on the credit unions' board of directors.  I would like for the board to nominate me for the vacancy.

As a 50 plus year member and a prior member nominated candidate that garnered the most votes of the four member nominated candidates that ran in 2024, I feel that I am qualified and represent a large constituency of members in several communities.

Respectfully submitted,

 Julian Hawes

✔ Julian Hawes was the top member-nominated 

candidate, receiving 31,203 votes, in the last 

contested SECU Board election (October, 2024).

Julian Hawes

Brought up in Wallace, N.C., a man of his word, suffers from a rural N.C. work ethic. Graduated from N.C. State, as an ardent Wolfpack loyalist. Retired after a 30+ year career at SECU, serving as the SVP for eastern N.C. in Goldsboro. SECU's premier lender and loan officer mentor. About lending: "Listen first, decide second; put yourself in the other fellow's shoes; and, the best collateral for a loan is the borrower's character." Expert in finance, but understands the member-value of the $500 salary advance loan program, which he created. Married, now lives in the Winston-Salem area. Still knows how to “prime” tobacco.

 

   Wonder why the vacancy hasn't been announced...  too much transparency?

What Ails Credit Unions ...

   AImless Mergers!! [link]

✅  Credit Unions: "... were supposed to discipline the financial system by proving that finance could be organized for people instead of profit. Instead, much of the movement now behaves as though its highest goal is to become indistinguishable from the institutions it was built to reform." **

 

 

✔ "And worst of all, you have forgotten that credit unions were not built to win a market share war. They were built to change the rules of the game."

✔  "In your system, they are sold — politely, with paperwork — but sold, nonetheless. That is not cooperation. That is market logic wearing a cooperative costume."  

✔  "The cooperative movement was never meant to be efficient at the cost of being just. It was meant to be just even when inefficient. Because justice is the point."

 An AIrtight case! 

**  AKA: "industry standard" 

Benchmark The Truth For Future Reference: Take A Listen..

   

               Southern "Culture" ?

 

  - WUNC/ 91.5 FM is our local public service radio station.  Affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the station provides a wealth of insight into our economy, politics, communities and culture. 

Those who leap left assert that WUNC is balanced and fair; those who lurch right claim bias and froo-froolery.  In other words, your typical PBS station!

One locally produced program is Due South, which featured an interview with SECU CEO Leigh Brady this week. Here take a listen and see what you think: [Due South link] 

I found much encouragement in the assertion that 3-tier race-based lending is at least better than the 5-tier industry standard; that the pursuit of business lending was minimized; and that community support was still important. 

There also seems to be a clearer awareness that in the future "digital"  may enhance transaction speed; but that for SECU members, service quality is still defined - and delivered - by the local, branch staff. 

Of major note - in the midst of the national, mega-merger malfeasance by credit unions - was our CEO's repeated commitment to remaining locally focused - solely on North Carolina. Nothing could be more important to our State and the member-owners of SECU. 

Let's hope Ms. Brady and the SECU Board will keep their word. Mark it, save it, ... we'll see.  

✅  One major focus in the broadcast will not go unchallenged by the ladies. There are several employees (and we all know who you are!) who will claim that Ms. Brady is not the first female "to lead" SECU - whether "behind the scenes", as a branch leader, or on the teller line!

😎 Suspect they're right.  Our CEO is at best "currently first" among many, many females to lead at SECU.

  If you doubt it,  just ask the members in your community who they rely on at SECU! 

 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..

                                         

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
             (from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama - 1963)                  

                                 

✅ Want to see clearly what it takes to change the world?

Look at their eyes... 

✔ Heading for a segregated lunch counter at F. W. Woolworth's.
Durham, North Carolina
February 16, 1960

 

 

  

Glad those folks weren't "industry standard".

Aren't you? 

Troll Twits !!!

  To flourish as a TrollTwit you need two things: 

.... ignorance and confidence.

✔  The Twit: Anonymous January 14, 2026 at 4:02 PM

“Legally in charge of SECU”. God that’s rich. Please site your sources for this and no, your own misinformed opinion on the powers of the NCCUD administrator do not apply. Make sure you use facts." 

 

✅ The law: § 54-109.12.  Corporations organized hereunder subject to Administrator of Credit Unions; rules and regulations. [link]

"In addition to any and all other powers, duties and functions vested in the Administrator of Credit Unions under the provisions of this Article, the Administrator of Credit Unions shall have general control, management and supervision over all corporations organized under the provisions of Article 14A. All corporations organized under the provisions of Article 14A shall be subject to the management, control and supervision of the Administrator of Credit Unions as to their conduct, organization, management, business practices and their financial and fiscal matters."

 

 ✔  The Twit: Anonymous December 21, 2025 at 1:27 PM

"Don’t agree whatsoever. A credit union cannot be sold. There are no shares of stock to buy, and there is no consideration in credit union mergers."

 

✅ The law:  "§ 54-109.21.  General powers. " [link]

"A credit union may:..."

"(10) Sell all or substantially all of its assets or purchase all or substantially all of the assets of another financial institution, subject to the approval of the Administrator of Credit Unions; "

✔  The Twit: Anonymous January 13, 2026 at 8:33 PM

"6:42pm You’re just wrong. As always, you can say someone else is wrong but you can’t say why"

 ✅ Undeniable ignorance, supported by unfounded self-confidence...

    That's a twit! 

 

 

Credit Union Mergers: Still Trolling Along...

   

A purple haze of financial logic? [link]

😎 Parsing out  troll speak:   "Anonymous January 13, 2026 at 10:32 AM"

 1) "I do understand the financial mechanics. CU mergers are balance sheet combos, not buy/sell with consideration. Capital, after a mark to market of A&L of the merged credit union, is combined, not lost."

✔ Response:  Less than half an understanding. "Buy and sell" is an explicitly legal option. CUs may simply sell all their assets in the free market, for fair value and distribute the remaining reserves/equity to member-owners. (You do know that, right?) A give-away is not the only choice.

2) "I also know enough to know you are correct. In each cu deal, a merged and surviving or continuing cu must be designated. A smaller CU can be the surving cu. A charter distinction, though. Doesn’t mean the surviving smaller cu ELT and board will be in charge - those a part of negotiated terms. "

✔ Response: : Thank you for acknowledging ("you are correct...") that a much smaller CU can readily acquire a much larger CU. There are hundreds of CUs and banks which could acquire SECU today, if the Board wanted to sell out.

3) "Think about it in reality, though. Let’s say SAFE was the surviving CU. New CU will be called SAFE, CA HQ, BECU gets one board seat, and they retain one BECU ELT. Think BECU board approves that? 

✔ Response:  Why not? SAFE is operating at a much lower cost and any other benefits of merging are the same. It certainly doesn't rain as much in Sacramento... and the Napa valley vineyards are closer!

4) "Think members vote for it?" 

✔ Response:  Sure! Re-read BECU's glowing press release on a "merger of equals" [link]. Benefits to BECU members are identical. 'Course the way you phrase it, the BECU board gets canned... but this is not about them, is it?

 5)  "Think regulators will approve that?"  

✔ Response:   Why wouldn't they? Who loses when credit union members win?

6) "Appreciate your points of what’s legally possible versus viable. Both your scenarios, of 100% of a merged cu capital being paid out and a huge CU being merged into a CU 1/10 its size, a so incredibly far-fetched and disconnected from reality they won’t happen, Also would depend on pure negligence, stupidity and breaches of duty by groups large and small."

✔ Response:   In our SAFE/BECU example you say: "...would depend on pure negligence, stupidity and breaches of duty by groups large and small." Which "groups" are you talking about here? 

5) "BTW, if SAFE acquired BECU where does BECU’s capital go? Fleeced from BECU’s 1.6 million members and given to SAFE’s members? "

✔ Response:  What's the issue, it's all kumbaya capital anyway, right? Wouldn't Jefferies approve it? ("Of important note was that BECU had hired the global investment firm Jefferies, LLC "[link])  

 Describing a CU merger proposal as "pure negligence, stupidity and breaches of duty"... well, whoa now! 

Credit Unions: On The Highway To... Or The Road To Damascus?

   See The Light?

✅ In case you missed it, you might like to take a look at this Sunday morning sermon from Brother Ed Speed [CUDaily].

✔  Excerpt: "Royal consciousness" in credit unions is seen when:

• Scale becomes virtue, rather than a tool.
• Consolidation becomes inevitability, rather than a choice.
• Executive self-enrichment becomes normal, rather than scandalous.
• Member democracy becomes a nuisance, rather than non-negotiable.
• The movement’s origin stories become marketing fodder rather, than moral constraint. 

 As the kids would ask: "Are we there yet?" 

 

 

Credit Unions: Godfather Mergers - Part XIII

The P-u-r-r-fidy of Credit Union Mergers

  

 ... a malignancy of malpractice, metastasizing into mafioso malfeasance.  

We've spent much time looking at the onslaught of mergers within the credit union movement. Been using the proposed SAFE/BECU merger as an example to illustrate and quantify the issues. The SAFE/BECU merger proposal is neither unique, nor exceptional. That CU management and Boards win big in mergers, while credit union members-owners lose out is now common practice.

If you're late to the game, "The Godfather Mergers"  series has been reorganized so you can click here [link] and page through, beginning at Part I. (Click "Newer Post" at the bottom left of each "Part" to see the next one).

You may also like to take a look at the parody on the Warner Brothers/Paramount intense, "shareholders'-interests-always-come-first",  real world merger struggle [link] to understand how financially negligent credit union mergers have become. Credit union members are being bilked out of billions in shareholder equity - that's billions $$$ with a large "B"!

Would like to add one more comparison to emphasize how malevolent the credit union merger process has become. The following anonymous blog comment epitomizes the bizarre economic logic underlying current credit union mergers:  

✔ Anonymous December 8, 2025 at 7:31 AM

"Credit unions don’t sell themselves like you sell a house. There is no consideration in CU mergers. Advocating for competitive bid processes is harmful to the system. "

✅ Say what? Why would selling a credit union to an acquiring credit union be "harmful to the system"? Just who/what is "the system"? Do the interests of "the system" override the ownership interests of the merging credit union's shareholders? Really?

✅  Here's an intriguing question for your consideration. Credit Unions nationwide are not only acquiring fellow credit unions, but are also buying commercial banks in great numbers [link]:  

✔ Q: "Do credit unions who buy commercial banks, pay bank shareholders for the value of the assets and equity of the bank?" 

A: Would any bank board of directors ever consider "giving away" their shareholders equity - what an insanely silly, illegal, economic idea! 

😎  Why does the board of directors of SAFE credit union - or any credit union for that matter - believe they can giveaway a $4 billion financial institution worth between $400 to $800 million [link], without compensating the member-owners?

 Cat's out of the bag on CU mergers. They are clearly malignant and rapidly metastasizing... and unfortunately this catastrophe has at least nine lies! 

Nothing "New/New" To Report...

 

 If you have nothing to say, say nothing. - Mark Twain 

 ✅ Wanted to follow-up on this commenter inquiry: Anonymous December 31, 2025 at 1:57 PM

"Can you give us an update on the email or letter to the CEO submitted by the advisory Board member. Had their been a reply of and sort? Thank you!"

"1:57pm Not sure of the reference. Can you refresh an aging memory? Thank you."

"The email from Shirley Bell to Leigh Brady. Was there ever a reply to Mrs Bell from Mrs Brady?"

The infamous "no amendment amendments" approved by the SECU Board last September still haven't surfaced. Our CEO Leigh Brady appeared at best deceptive by reading an "I believe all y'all are really stupid" answer to a question on the amendments at the SECU Annual Meeting [here's the post]. 

The later, direct "Yes or No" inquiry by former SECU Board member Shirley Bell [here's the post] resulted in this answer from Ms. Brady: "You know I can't tell you that." 

 ✔ Why  Ms. Brady feels it necessary to conceal the truth on the"no amendment amendments" from the SECU membership remains a mystery? 

 

 But the truth will out... Ms. Brady will get another chance.