STCU has agreed to acquire four Banner Bank branches in small Inland Northwest towns. 

The acquisition, which is pending regulatory approval, involves branches in the Stevens County towns of Chewelah, Colville, and Kettle Falls, north of Spokane County. The fourth branch is across the Washington-Idaho state line in Hayden. 

The proposed acquisition involves the real estate in which the branches are housed and some deposit accounts of current Banner customers, according to a release issued by STCU earlier today, Feb. 24. The Liberty Lake-based credit union expects to complete the transaction on June 24 and to retain all current Banner employees at their locations. 

Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed in the release. 

The purchase, if approved, would increase STCU’s branch network to 40 locations in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The credit union already has three branches and about 3,000 members in Stevens County. The Hayden branch would be its sixth in Kootenai County. 

After the transfer, Banner Bank still would have a strong physical presence. The Walla Walla, Washington-based bank operates more than two-dozen branches in Eastern Washington and about 170 locations throughout the western U.S. 

Four regulatory bodies must approve the transaction for it to move ahead: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National Credit Union Administration, the Washington state Department of Financial Institutions, and the Idaho Department of Finance. 

STCU, formally Spokane Teachers Credit Union, ranked as the largest credit union in Spokane County, in terms of local deposits, on the Journal’s Spokane-Area Credit Unions list, published last June. Banner Bank ranked eighth on the Journal’s Banks list, which was published last April and also is ranked by local deposits.