MCU Ltd is casting around for directors and an alternative renewal path after members of the Maleny mutual voted to reject the proposed merger with Credit Union Australia on Saturday.
The Sunshine Coast Daily newspaper reported that 637 members opposed the merger and 464 voted in favour. There were 319 members at the meeting at Maleny Community Centre and 782 proxy votes.
With a fifth of members voting, following a vigorous campaign, especially on the part of the opponents, the board and the dissenting activists may be wondering how to interpret the wishes of what the MCU board's weekend announcement described as "the hitherto silent majority of members".
The views of the activists are pretty well known and have been readily shared, for example, in discussions on a dedicated
Facebook page, as well as a separate website for "
Friends of Maleny Credit Union".
For CUA the loss of an opportunity for a merger with Maleny, with only A$60 million in assets, is no real disappointment, and it was the board of the smaller entity that was searching for a merger partner anyway.
On the other hand, CUA has a strategic goal of doubling in size over five years, which really means mergers with much more substantial credit unions, perhaps those that rank just below it in size.
One of those, Australian Central Credit Union, in Adelaide, is this evening holding its own special general meeting of members in an effort to adopt a new name following the merger two years ago with its local rival, Savings & Loans.
A proposed change of name to People's Credit Union failed to secure approval, by a small margin, at last year's annual general meeting.
ACCU is now seeking member support with a variant on this name: People's Choice Credit Union.