Infinity on the horizon as credit unions merge
Published:Friday | September 13, 2024 | 12:07 AMNeville Graham. - Business Reporter
Following the review of over 500 submissions by a joint committee of the credit unions EduCom and Gateway, its governors have decided to rename the merged entity as Infinity Co-operative Credit Union.
The two institutions have agreed to merge but aren’t expected to start combining their operations until early in the new year.
The renaming of the entity is part of the process. In the end, three different persons from the two credit unions won a cash prize of $100,000 for coming up with the same name, without consultation.
CEO of Gateway Co-operative Credit Union, Ornell Bedassie, said the coincidental choices of the new name generated even more goodwill towards the merger.
“Fortuitously, the persons who came up with the name are from both credit unions. The real work begins now. So far, so good, but a lot remains to be done,” said Bedassie.
“The committees are presently working, including finance, risk, marketing, operations; in fact, a whole slew of people busily working towards January 2025,” he said.
The merged entity is poised to become the largest credit union in Jamaica once the combination takes effect.
Both merger partners are themselves the outcomes of previous credit union tie-ups.
Gateway is the product of the amalgamation of Montego Bay Co-operative Credit Union with Hanover Credit Union in 2017. There are four branches in its network, one in Falmouth in the parish of Trelawny, two in Montego Bay, and one in Lucea, Hanover.
As at December 2023, Gateway, which is headquartered at Church Street in Montego Bay, had $13.16 billion in assets and a membership of over 72,000.
AAMM and UWI Co-operative Credit Unions merged their operations in April 2015 to form EduCom Co-operative Credit Union Limited. EduCom has since grown to nine branches after a further merger with St Catherine Co-operative Credit Union in 2017.
The latest available report on Kingston-based EduCom shows that the credit union has assets of $13.89 billion and net savings of just over $11 billion. Its 82,000 members are served by a branch network of 10.
The very latest information indicates that the merged entity, Infinity Co-operative Credit Union, should have about $30 billion in assets and over 170,000 in membership, according to Acting CEO of EduCom Camille Drummond.
By virtue of its assets, this would make Infinity Jamaica’s largest credit union, besting C&WJ Co-operative Credit Union, which presently has about $26 billion in assets. In terms of membership, Infinity would still lag behind COK Sodality Credit Union’s 251,000 base.
Jamaica’s credit union movement has a total membership of just over 1.04 million, according the Jamaica Co-operative Credit Union League, with the Bank of Jamaica reporting total assets of just under $185 billion for the sector as at May 2024.
The number of players in the sector is expected to dip to 24 following the EduCom-Gateway merger.