July 2025 | Mike Vogel
Vero Beach-based Marine Bank & Trust Co., after 27 years of independence, agreed to be sold last year along with its $650 million in assets to ELGA Credit Union based in Grand Blanc, Mich.
“They understand at the end of the day it’s what’s best for the investors, the employees and the customers, the community.” — Bill Penney, president and CEO of Marine Bank
The ELGA-Marine deal, oddly, was the second by a Grand Blanc credit union acquiring a Florida bank in recent years. It comes amid a spate of Michigan credit unions buying Florida banks. Grand Blanc-based Dort Financial in 2023 purchased Flagler National Bank in West Palm Beach. Flagler Credit Union, as it’s now called, late last year signed a $22.5-million, 15-year naming rights deal for Florida Atlantic University’s football stadium.
Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Lake Michigan Credit Union, with 600,000 members and $13 billion in assets, entered Florida in 2015 and has 21 branches here. It bought Encore Bank in Naples in 2018 and, for $97 million, Pilot Bank in Lakeland and St. Petersburg in 2021. Rounding out the Michigan acquisition list is Dearborn-based DFCU Financial, which in 2023 acquired First Citrus Bank in Tampa and followed that up in 2024 by acquiring MidWestOne Bank’s Naples and Fort Myers business. Last year, DFCU agreed to buy Winter Park National Bank.
Florida for decades has been a banking colony, with its local banks acquired by out-of-state institutions. What’s new is that now the acquirers are credit unions eyeing Florida’s population growth, seeing opportunities to move into commercial banking and wanting to follow their vacationing and retiring members.
The Michigan twist owes to financial and regulatory history. The Michigan credit unions, many born at large industrial employers, have heft. Initially, they provided loans and limited services to customers that banks would have found too small or too risky. DFCU, for example, got its start in 1950 as Ford Engineering Employees Federal Credit Union with a cigar box and $5 from each of seven charter members. It’s now at $6 billion in assets with nearly 240,000 members.
Federal law changes beginning in the 1990s let credit unions become bankers to the masses rather than providers of limited financial services to low- and modest-income people in a specific place or at a specific employer. They now offer everything from credit cards to mutual funds, discount brokerage, insurance and wealth management — the same consumer services as banks but with tax-exempt status. The banking industry, watching credit unions move into affluent banking markets and compete, long has complained that this tax advantage is unfair. Banking industry groups likewise complain that it enables credit unions to pay higher prices to acquire banks.
Marine Bank President and CEO Bill Penney acknowledges the industry’s stance, but he says bankers he personally knows recognize why Marine sold to a credit union. “They understand at the end of the day it’s what’s best for the investors, the employees and the customers, the community,” Penney says.
Penney says Marine’s impetus for a sale came out of its annual strategic planning. He noted rising technology and regulatory costs that banks like his face. Once the deal clears regulatory approval, Marine will become a credit union. The name will change over time. Marine has three branches in Indian River and one each in St. Lucie and Brevard. Penney anticipates expansion. ELGA is paying $43.75 per share.
“Our cultures are so similar,” Penney says. He says the businesses are complementary — Marine is versed in commercial services and ELGA in consumer services.