Dive Brief:
- Gulf Winds Credit Union has agreed to buy Monroeville, Alabama-based Peoples Exchange Bank, according to a Friday release.
- That’s the Pensacola, Florida-based credit union’s second whole-bank purchase in roughly a month, and the seventh proposed acquisition of a bank by a credit union this year. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
- Gulf Winds announced last month it would buy Madison County Community Bank in Florida, and rebrand itself TruWorth Credit Union next spring. The credit union’s CEO, Daniel Souers, on Friday labeled the two acquisitions “the first chapter of TruWorth.”
Dive Insight:
Acquiring Peoples Exchange Bank will give Gulf Winds a second location in Monroeville – and a fourth in Alabama – and expand the credit union’s asset total to $1.75 billion. Peoples Exchange counts a single branch and $98.6 million in assets, according to a call report dated June 30.
“We are thrilled to find a like-minded financial institution that shares our values and vision for the future,” Peoples Exchange Bank CEO Harvey Gaston Jr. said in a statement Friday. “Partnering with Gulf Winds lets us expand how we serve our longtime customers and deepen the impact we make in our community.”
Gulf Winds said it expects final regulatory approval in mid-2027, with the integration of Peoples Exchange and Madison County Community Bank with the credit union by the beginning of 2028.
“Peoples Exchange Bank … shares our belief in community investment, long-term relationships, and modern service with a human touch,” Souers said. “By joining forces with them, as well as Madison County Community Bank, we extend our shared commitment of putting people first.”
As bank mergers and acquisitions have picked up in 2026, the pace of credit union-bank deals has slowed, from a record 22 such transactions announced in 2024 to 16 last year to seven through the first nine months of this year.
Rebeca Romero Rainey, CEO of Independent Community Bankers of America, said the trade group has sought to demonstrate “there’s impact and there’s harm” to a community once a credit union acquires a community bank. She pointed to mortgage denial rates rising, for example.
The ICBA continues to urge lawmakers to end the federal tax exemption for credit unions with $1 billion or more in assets.
“Hopefully, as we continue to educate and pull these facts forward, it can help dampen that trend,” Romero Rainey told Banking Dive in an interview.
America’s Credit Unions CEO Scott Simpson, however, has said changes to the tax code “could negatively impact how credit unions help consumers and communities across the country,” and credit unions’ tax-exempt status benefits the financial well-being of 146 million credit union members in the U.S.
