Credit Unions Conexus, Cornerstone, and Synergy have recently announced a potential merger. Conexus Credit Union board chair Ken Kosolofski says they’re looking to create a province-wide credit union that evolves with the needs of its members and communities.
“We felt that together we learn how to best address the future needs of the credit union system, meet the specialized resource demands, and tackle competitive and regulatory pressures, and to ensure a sustainable credit union for the long term. We believe merging our collective strengths has the potential to drive economic growth in the communities, further empower communities, and support the dreams of individuals, farmers, and businesses across the province.”
Celina Philpot, chief executive officer at Conexus Credit Union, shares their commitment to serve the entire province, and this merger will support that.
“The initial thing that the members will see is just more options. So being able to interact with inter-branch transactions. So they've just gotten in half a network of now four instead of two in the previous sense, so they'll experience that right away. Ideally too, as we are able to expand the digital offering that we have at Conexus, that would also be something that members of Cornerstone and Synergy would have an opportunity to experience as well.”
Kosolofski says they, with their partners, have been working for several weeks to create the concept paper sent to members yesterday. Moving forward, they will be working on a business case expected to be completed by March of next year. It will go to the boards for approval, then voted on by members in June 2025.
Philpot explains there are a few levels of regulatory approvals involved as well.
“We're working with a couple of levels of regulatory approval. Within the province, we are mandated by the provincial government. That's our jurisdiction. We'll be working with the regulator in that respect. In addition to that, there's a federal layer of oversight, which is the Competition Bureau. We'll be working to work through and satisfy the requirements of that regulatory body as well.”
Regarding naming, Kosolofski assures all three boards will consult on the new name of the institutions.
“It's recommended right now that the name of the new credit union is going to be selected from the existing credit unions and finalized as part of the business case development.”
He also expresses his excitement for the project moving forward.
“I just want to say thank you for your interest and we're very, very excited at Conexus to be working with our two partners, Cornerstone and Synergy, and we're hoping that we're going to be able to come back with a new credit union in several months.”
Philpot adds “we're really committed to building a thriving Saskatchewan and our ability to partner with our two credit unions will just enable us to do that at a faster rate as we are looking to serve the entire province. We are committed to being part of that economic driver and create prosperity for our province. So we're very much looking forward to the opportunity to explore that possibility.”