Chelsea-based Metro Credit Union plans to merge with Gloucester Municipal Credit Union in what will be Massachusetts’ first credit union merger since the start of the pandemic.

The credit unions have applied with state and federal regulators to combine. Gloucester Municipal has $2.2 million in total assets and about 500 members, according to data from the National Credit Union Administration. Metro will not retain Gloucester Municipal’s city hall office.

With about $2.3 billion in assets, Metro is the second largest credit union in Massachusetts, behind Digital Federal Credit Union, and the largest state-chartered credit union. The merger would expand Metro’s field of membership to include full-time, part-time and retired employees of the city of Gloucester. People who live and work in Essex County are already eligible for Metro Credit Union membership.

Gloucester Municipal’s members are scheduled to vote on the merger in late January.

The state has not seen credit union mergers since the beginning of the year, when four mergers that had received regulatory approval last December were finalized in either January or February. These included Pressers Union Local 12 ILGWU Credit Union merging into Somerville Federal Credit Union, Ocean Spray Employees Federal Credit Union in Bridgewater with Merrimack Valley Credit Union, Waltham Municipal Employee Credit Union merging into RTN Federal Credit Union, and Sharon Credit Union joining with Brockton-based Crescent Credit Union, which added another $1 billion asset institution to the state.

Tom O’Connor, a partner with GT Reilly and Co., a Milton-based firm offering audit and tax services to community banks and credit unions, told Banker & Tradesman last month that he expected to see mergers continue. While leaders will take a cautious approach to mergers during the pandemic, O’Connor said, the challenges some institutions could face in finding loan activity could encourage them to look for merger candidates.