Southeast Idaho-based Idaho Central Credit Union is operating its first North Idaho branch after having recently absorbed the assets and liabilities of Public Employees Credit Union of Coeur d’Alene.

The ICCU Coeur d’Alene branch is located at the former Public Employees Credit Union lone branch site at 1410 N. Government Way.

“We merged with Public Employees Credit Union in July,” says ICCU CEO Kent Oram. “We’ve been well-received in that location. We have some new members and some who had left have come back.”

ICCU recently hired a new business development officer and a business relationship officer to bring the Coeur d’Alene branch staff up to eight people, whereas Public Employees Credit Union had only three employees.

“We’re staffed up to our normal levels there,” says Oram, who is based at the ICCU main office in the city of Chubbuck, Idaho, which abuts the north edge of Pocatello.

Oram says ICCU hopes to add more branches in North Idaho.

“I suspect we will see a few more in the future up there,” he says. “We’re looking hard at that market.”

Oram says the Coeur d’Alene credit union approached ICCU about the merger.

“They weren’t in imminent danger, but like other small credit unions, they were struggling,” he says.

Public Employees Credit Union had $8.8 million in assets, and less than 1,800 members when ICCU took over its operations, Oram says.

In the last performance report that Public Employees Credit Union submitted to the National Credit Union Administration for the quarter ended March 31, it reported a modest increase in loans, and a slight decrease in assets and deposits, compared with a year earlier. Net income for the quarter, however, slipped to $1,200 compared with $3,200 in the year-earlier period.

ICCU, which was exponentially larger by some measures, had $2.3 billion in assets, 201,000 members, and 26 branches prior to taking in the Coeur d’Alene credit union, Oram says.

The larger credit union reported net income of $17.1 million in the quarter ended June 30, nearly double income of $8.7 million in the year-earlier period. ICCU also reported significant increases in deposits, loans, and total assets as of June 30 compared with a year earlier.

“Our Idaho-based growth rate is very strong,” Oram says.

The credit union was founded in 1940 to serve officers of other Idaho credit unions who weren’t allowed at that time to join the credit unions in which they worked.

ICCU currently has 600 employees.