Lake Charles Telco CU Merges with Pelican State CU

BATON ROUGE, LA – Pelican State Credit Union announced today that Lake Charles TELCO Credit Union will merge with Pelican on July 1, 2010. The merger was approved last week with the unanimous vote of the membership and unified support from both Boards of Directors.

Following the merger, Pelican will retain all Telco employees and members. “We will work together to join the two credit unions as seamlessly as possible,” said Jeffrey K. Conrad, Pelican CEO. “Service to Telco members will be uninterrupted,” he said.

Conrad said that Telco members will now have access to products and services that were not previously available to them, such as debit cards, online banking, cash services and access to more than 3,500 Credit Union Service Center locations nationwide.

“This is a great opportunity for us to strengthen our relationships with the 400 plus Pelican members that reside in Lake Charles,” Conrad said.

W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center in Lake Charles is one of Pelican’s larger Select Employer Groups (SEGs). This means that hospital employees are eligible for membership with Pelican and will benefit from the new branch that is less than a mile from the hospital.

This is the second merger for Pelican this year, who merged with Pinekraft Federal Credit Union of Pineville on January 1, 2010.

Telco has approximately $1.9 million in assets and more than 600 members. It was originally chartered in 1953 to serve the employees of AT&T (formerly BellSouth).

With more than $171 million in assets and more than 30,000 members, Pelican is the larger of the two credit unions. Originally chartered as the Department of Hospitals Credit Union in 1956, Pelican continues to serve state hospitals, as well as many private companies and the residents of Rapides Parish.

Pelican has successfully merged with Kaiser Federal Credit Union, Opelousas General Hospital Credit Union and Pinekraft Federal Credit Union in the past.