Meridian Trust Federal Credit Union Announces Merger

Ed Beckmann | Meridian Trust

Meridian Trust Federal Credit Union – with $575 million in assets, nearly 32,000 members and branches in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska – has just announced a proposed merger with Nebraska-based Western Heritage Federal Credit Union, with $65 million in assets, over 8,800 members and branches in Alliance and Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The two credit unions will be merged under the Meridian Trust name.

The proposed merger of Meridian Trust and Western Heritage federal credit unions will join two institutions that share a strong commitment to their membership and the communities they serve. The partnership will offer expanded services to Western Heritage FCU members and additional branch and ATM access to Meridian Trust FCU members. Members and employees of both organizations will benefit from the economies of scale that a larger organization brings. No layoffs will result from the merger which is expected to be completed by early 2022.

Kim Withers, Meridian Trust CEO, said, “We look at this as an opportunity that will benefit the great members of both credit unions. Each organization has a strong passion for serving their existing and potential membership, providing local as well as world-class digital services.”

Meridian Trust Federal Credit Union was also recently named the Best Credit Union in the state according to Forbes.

Since both credit unions currently have a branch in Scottsbluff less than a half mile apart from each other, the plan is to combine operations inside of the Western Heritage location. The branch in Alliance, Nebraska will remain at its current location.

“We’re extremely excited to partner with Meridian Trust because of what this means for our membership,” said Western Heritage CEO Cindy Baker. “Western Heritage FCU has honored and served our membership for 85 years. This will ensure that we can continue to meet our members’ growing financial needs, while continuing to provide them with top level service. Meridian Trust has a wide array of offerings that our members will love. They come in with an amazing free checking product that our members have been asking for, and they’ve also just recently launched a state-of-the-art online banking product and a new mobile app.” She added, “They also have great low loan rates. Our members will truly benefit from this partnership, and I believe they will be very happy with the added products and services.

Meridian Trust member service scores are among the highest in the financial services industry nationwide, according to Meridian Trust Chief Experience Officer Ed Beckmann. “Western Heritage members have an incredibly bright future ahead of them,” he noted.