People First Bank eyes second major merger to double in size
Rising costs and competition are fuelling merger talks across the mutuals sector — and People First Bank is ready to make its next big move.
Just two years after the transformational merger of People’s Choice Credit Union and Heritage Bank, the newly formed People First Bank is considering a further merger that could double its size — again.
People First CEO Steve Laidlaw told Capital Brief the bank, which holds $25 billion in assets, currently has sufficient scale to manage the rising costs of regulation, cybercrime and technology, but that growing further would be welcome.
“At $25 billion we can certainly adapt to what we see are the likely eventualities in terms of the market, but we would be keen for another merger to get us to around $50 billion in size,” he said. “To be clear, I certainly believe we have the model and the flexibility in that model to operate at 25 but I'd love to be at 50.”
Laidlaw said no merger discussions were live, but stressed that any future deal would need to be with a larger institution. Consolidating smaller mutuals, he said, is too time-consuming and complex, without the benefits to justify it.
