Western Financial proposes to acquire Alberta’s second-largest credit union

Western Financial Group intends to submit a proposal to acquire the assets and liabilities of Community Savings & Credit Union (Community Savings) of Red Deer, Alberta.
Community Savings is the second largest credit union in Alberta, with assets of Cdn$2.72 billion.
Scott Tannas, the president and CEO of Western Financial Group, said his company “informed the board of directors of Community Savings of our pending proposal, and requested that it be placed on the agenda at their special meeting on Mar. 18, 2008.”
The special meeting was already called to approve a merger proposal involving Community Savings and two other Alberta-based credit unions.
“Our proposal, which has not yet been placed on the March 18th agenda, is a strong alternative to the merger currently under consideration,” Tannas said in a press release.
Tannas noted Western Financial’s proposal offered the following benefits to the 110,000 members and 625 employees of Community Savings.
They include:
a cash windfall for each and every Community Savings member, as a result of a significant valuation premium over the current merger proposal;
100% job security for the employees of Community Savings, both in head office and in all 30 branches;
complete preservation of existing products, prices, service levels and branches.
under the Bank West banner, Community Savings members would not notice any service or operations changes.
“There are a great number of similarities between our organizations,” said Tannas. “We are in many of the same towns and cities, we have the same community-based values and culture, and we estimate that 20% of Community Savings members are already insurance customers of Western Financial Group,” he said.