Lake Michigan Credit Union announced in June 2021 that it plans to purchase Tampa, Fl.-based Pilot Bank in a deal valued at $100 million. What’s interesting about this latest bank-buy by a large credit union is that Pilot Bank isn’t exactly what you’d think when you envision a credit union.
In fact, Pilot Bank specializes in airplane financing – not exactly “people not profits.”
Lake Michigan Credit Union already has branches in Florida – if you squint very hard you could see Lake Michigan from the Florida panhandle, we suppose – and this latest transaction will bring its total number of branches to 19 in Florida.
The “common bond” that Lake Michigan Credit Union points to in order to justify the deal? Its CEO told the Tampa Bay Times that it would make banking easier for its members who “live in or vacation” in Florida.
The transaction is expected to close late in 2021. Lake Michigan Credit Union’s acquisition of Pilot Bank isn’t its first in Florida. In 2017 it purchased $400 million Encore Bank of Naples, Fl. At the time, the Encore acquisition was the largest bank purchase by a credit union.
