Livonia, Michigan-based Zeal Credit Union has agreed to acquire The Miners State Bank in a move that would boost the institution’s presence in the state’s Upper Peninsula.
The transaction, set to close in this year’s fourth quarter, will create an institution with 22 branches and roughly $1.1 billion in assets, Zeal said in a press release Thursday.
Further financial details were not disclosed.
The move also represents the first announced acquisition of a bank by a credit union in 2026. Such deals typically have drawn criticism from trade groups such as the Independent Community Bankers of America, which argues that credit unions’ tax exemption allows them to offer a higher purchase price for small or struggling banks than other competing banks would.
“With tax-exempt credit unions continuing their troubling pace of acquiring taxpaying community banks into 2026, ICBA and the nation’s community bankers continue our call for policymakers to address the harmful impact these deals have on local communities,” the trade group said in a Thursday statement seen by Banking Dive. “As Congress works to advance various policy priorities ahead of the midterm elections, it is time for lawmakers to eliminate the federal tax exemption for credit unions over $1 billion in assets.”
Acquisitions of banks by credit unions spiked to a record 22 announced transactions in 2024 but leveled off to 16 last year, according to banking software firm Tyfone.
Incidentally, Zeal is the credit union that pushed 2024’s total to 22, announcing on Dec. 30 of that year that it would buy another Upper Peninsula lender, Gogebic Range Bank. Regulators approved that transaction late last month, and Gogebic customers became Zeal members Jan. 1, the credit union said.
Buying The Miners State Bank, meanwhile, will give Zeal five added branches and roughly $144 million in extra assets, the credit union said, adding that it expects to “keep predominately all the employees and all branches while investing in the local communities served” by the bank.
“We are excited for the opportunity to partner with The Miners State Bank and improve financial access to the benefit of our members in and around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,” Zeal CEO Julie Kreinbring said in a statement Thursday. “The Miners State is a well-managed, community-oriented bank and we look forward to welcoming their customers and employees into the expanding Zeal family.”
Paul Hinkson, CEO of Iron River-based Miners, said he is “very proud” of the bank’s “new association with Zeal Credit Union and look forward to the success that this partnership will bring.”
“During the process, it became clearly evident that we share the same core values regarding customer service, customer care, and employee well-being,” Hinkson said. “We are excited by what the future holds in store."
Michael Bell, a partner at law firm Honigman who has assisted on numerous credit union-bank tie-ups – though not this one – told Banking Dive on Friday he “expect[s] 2026 to be very active,” adding he is “aware of a series of transactions that should be announcing soon.”
As for how the new year is set to stack up in terms of volume, Bell told American Banker in November: “The deal flow I see on my desk, the conversations I’m involved in, [indicate] 2026 will be the same or better [than 2025].”
Bell has also taken issue with the ICBA’s position, saying the trade group’s comments are without “substance.”
“The ICBA equates size to evil for some reason,” he told Banking Dive in November. “I ask the ICBA, is a $1 billion community bank still a community bank? Should all community banks larger than $1 billion give up the many tax subsidies enjoyed by community banks?”
