Spokane-based Wheatland Bank has agreed to sell its Cheney branch and transfer that branchs deposits to Spokane Teachers Credit Union.


The loans held by Wheatlands Cheney branch will remain with Wheatland, but the branchs four employees are expected to be hired by Spokane Teachers, the two institutions say.


As of Sept. 16, the Cheney branch had about 700 customers with $6 million in total deposits.


Wheatland President, CEO, and Chairman Susan Pittman Horton says the transaction will increase the banks profitability in the short term, but is an isolated transaction. She says the sale doesnt alter Wheatlands long-term strategy to open branches in markets where it can grow its small-business and agricultural banking activity.


Spokane Teachers President and CEO Steve Dahlstrom says that buying the Cheney branch, which is located at 2718 First in the Cheney Safeway Plaza, will give the Spokane credit union a physical presence in Cheney, which its members in that area have been requesting for some time. With Eastern Washington University and the Cheney school district as primary fields of membership for the organization, Spokane Teachers already has 1,051 members in the Cheney area, and many other members live in Spokane but work in the West Plains area.


Branch presence in Cheney will provide our members even greater convenience and accessibility, he says.


The Cheney branch would be Spokane Teachers eighth. Six of the credit unions current branches are in the Spokane area, and one is in Newport, Wash.


The two institutions say that Spokane Teachers approached Wheatland about the prospect of buying its branch. Wheatland has eight other branches. Two of those branches are in the Spokane area, and the rest are in rural Eastern Washington and Central Washington towns.


The transaction is pending final regulatory approval. Its scheduled to be completed Dec. 20, says Nicole Grier, Wheatland Banks marketing director. Terms of the transaction wont be released until its completed, Grier says.


In a joint press release, the two institutions say, While bank-to-bank branch sales are quite common, the assumption of bank deposit accounts by a credit union is, to our knowledge, the first of its kind in the history of financial institutions.


The release says the transaction will provide that Wheatland Bank Cheney Branch depositors convert from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insurance to the credit unions equivalent National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, which is the reason the transaction is so unique in the regulators eyes.


Spokane Teachers Credit Union had total assets of about $611 million as of Sept. 12 and total deposits of about $524 million as of Aug. 31, 2003.


Wheatland Bank had total assets of $141 million and total deposits of $111 million as of Sept. 15, 2003.