Credit Unions Let’s start with the changes that have been taking place in the credit union industry. Historically, credit unions were not seen as competitors to banks because they offered fewer small business and commercial lending products and were limited in their customer base because of field of membership restrictions.
For this reason, credit union deposits were not factored into the initial competitive screens at all under the 1995 Bank Merger Guidelines. However, in the past few decades, we’ve seen credit unions expand their fields of membership. Many credit unions now go well beyond the traditional “common bond” requirements for membership and increasingly allow membership based on geography.