Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Advia Credit Union has agreed to buy $255 million-asset NorthSide Community Bank, the company announced Friday.
The acquisition will expand Advia’s footprint to northeastern Illinois by adding branches in Gurnee, Mundelein, Niles and Riverwoods.
This is the third bank acquisition announced by a credit union in 2024.
The transaction, expected to close in the third quarter, will boost Advia’s assets beyond $3 billion and its headcount to more than 550. The credit union will serve roughly 200,000 members across 32 branches in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are excited to welcome the customers of NorthSide Community Bank as members of Advia Credit Union,” Jeff Fielder, Advia’s CEO, said in a statement. “At Advia, our mission is to provide financial advantages to those we serve. NorthSide has a very talented team, and we are excited to have them join ours — growing stronger together.”
This is Advia's third bank acquisition. The credit union in 2016 and 2017 acquired two Wisconsin banks: $82 million-asset Mid America Bank in Janesville and $230 million-asset Peoples Bank in Elkhorn.
This is not the first time NorthSide has agreed to a deal with a credit union. Rantoul, Illinois-based Credit Union 1 agreed to acquire the community bank’s assets and liabilities in June 2022. The deal was expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2022 or the first quarter of 2023. The deal got a green light from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., but the agency’s website said the deal “will not consummate,” S&P Global reported in August.
“We are very pleased with the transaction, and we believe NorthSide Community Bank’s customers, employees, communities and shareholders will all benefit,” NorthSide CEO Patti Clausen said in a statement. “Advia is well positioned to competitively meet the financial needs of both our commercial and consumer customers.”
Bank-credit union deals have long irked trade groups like the Independent Community Bankers of America, which have argued that credit unions’ tax-exemption status allows them to offer higher buying prices than banks and help them to grow more freely.
However, the Midwest, for some time, has been a hot spot for bank acquisitions by credit unions.
“[C]ertain states in the Midwest (i.e. Illinois) have a large amount of community banks and will remain very active,” Michael Bell, chair of the financial institutions practice group at Honigman, told Banking Dive via email.
Bell said he expects more M&A announcements in the next 30 days or so.
“I expect a very large amount of consolidation in the space,” he said.
