It may be a few months before the Brockton-headquartered HarborOne Credit Union needs to order a change to its masthead. Though 62 percent of its voting membership recently OK’ed the credit union’s proposal to convert to a mutual cooperative bank charter, the credit union must clear a few more hurdles at the state and federal levels before it can add “bank” to its name.
HarborOne has already submitted an application to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and will soon submit certifications of the vote and related materials to the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and the state Division of Banks.
James Rice, HarborOne’s vice president of marketing, said both agencies need to approve the member vote for the conversion and the process could take several months.
The credit union’s plans to pursue conversion to a mutual cooperative bank charter have been in the works for more than a year now.
At $1.8 billion in assets, HarborOne is currently the largest credit union in New England and among the largest in the country. It serves approximately 150,000 customers throughout Bristol, Norfolk, Plymouth and Barnstable counties.
Only members who had belonged to the credit union for three months as of Feb. 15, 2012 were eligible to vote. Members could submit their ballots by mail, in person at any of HarborOne’s 14 locations, or at a special March 11 meeting, which officially closed the voting period.
Of those members who were eligible to vote, 22,433 did so.
HarborOne’s president and CEO James Blake had only limited comment while the credit union awaited regulatory approval, telling Banker & Tradesman by email, “We are very happy that nearly two thirds of the voting members cast their ballots in favor of the charter change. Our staff did a fantastic job educating our members on the benefits of becoming a co-operative bank.”
Blake has previously said that Harbor– One is pursuing the charter conversion so that it can expand its membership beyond the four counties it presently serves and access additional capital.
Credit union to bank charter conversions are rare. Since 1995, only 35 credit unions nationwide have converted to bank charters, according to the NCUA. There are presently 6,888 credit unions in the United States. The last credit union-to-bank conversion to take place was in 2009 – when Rhode Island’s Coastway Credit Union became Coastway Community Bank.
