In the first half of 2026 credit union mergers were down, admits Peter Duffy, a mergers expert now with Strategic Resource Management – but don’t expect that to be a permanent downturn.
Mergers will pick up and there will continue to be big credits merging with big credit unions.
Duffy, who has guested on the show multiple times before, is one of the leading experts on the subject of credit union mergers. On this episode he tells why there’s been a slowing in 2026, and also why it seems an inevitability that we will see renewed interest among credit unions in doing a merger.
It was just a handful of years ago when a credit union merger was something of a rarity and when it did occur it usually was what I have long called a mercy marriage – some might call it a shotgun wedding – which meant a big credit union swallowed a little one at the request of a regulator.
What’s different now is that many – most? – credit unions have begun to see merger as a strategic gambit that just might be the right path into a more successful future.
