(File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Merger approved

Cornerstone, Horizon and Plainsview Credit Union members vote in favour of merger

Jun 22, 2020 | 5:00 PM

The merger of Cornerstone, Horizon and Plainsview Credit Unions is a go.

Members of all three institutions voted in favour of a merger in an online and in-branch vote held last week.

Cornerstone members voted 88 per cent in favour of a merger, while 92 per cent of Horizon members and 94 per cent of Plainsview members supported the move.

“I’m very proud of the work that went into it from our teams within all three credit unions and lots of member engagement in the process,” Cornerstone CEO Doug Jones told northeastNOW. “So we’re very happy with both the level of participation from our members and the results.”

Jones, who will remain the CEO of the newly-merged institution, said he believes there are a couple of reasons members chose to overwhelmingly approve the merger.

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“The right partners going forward with common vision and approach, I think the members of all three credit unions were comfortable with that,” Jones said. “Also, our members are smart people, they see what’s going on in the financial services world, and I think they understood that we want to stay competitive and continue to offer all the products and services they need. We do need some scale to continue to do that effectively.”

The new credit union will keep the Cornerstone Credit Union moniker. It will become the fourth largest credit union in the province, serving over 35,000 members in 23 communities.

Despite that, Jones said they remain an eastern-Saskatchewan rural-based credit union, with strong roots in the region.

He said they will continue to build an integration plan with the inaugural board of directors, and the executive management of all three credit unions. That includes coming up with an organizational structure and system integration plans.

Cornerstone Credit Union currently has nine branches in local communities like Archerwill, Rose Valley, Tisdale, and Wynyard.

Horizon’s branches are located in Melville, Grayson, Neudorf, Grenfell and Wolseley. Plainsview has branches in Arcola, Kipling, Glenavon, Vibank, Montmartre, Odessa, Indian Head, Emerald Park/White City, and Govan.

The new credit union will employ about 285 people.

The merger is slated to take effect Jan.1, 2021.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974