Shades of Merger Gray
Credit unions can learn from hospitals and banks about options that lie between ‘merge’ and ‘don’t merge.’
Like credit unions, most hospitals are mission-focused rather than profit-motivated. Some not-for-profit hospitals were originally sponsored by religious organizations; others were created by and are sponsored by their community. Not-for-profit hospital directors are focused on patients and mission, not profits and stock price increases.
Like credit unions, not-for-profit hospitals do not have stockholders with the normal profit and capital appreciation objectives. Not-for-profit hospitals’ governance processes and organizational cultures are often similar to credit unions, too. Also like financial services, the degree of industry change and turbulence in healthcare is significant and accelerating. Both industries find themselves in challenging times.
As a director and chair of a large community hospital for 15 years, I see strong similarities between these two types of institutions and believe credit unions can discover significant learnings from hospital merger activity that may help keep consolidations a viable option for credit unions.
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