Garden City credit union completes merger with Wichita-based Central Star

Officials from Golden Plains Credit Union said Thursday its merger with Central Star Credit Union is complete.

Under the merger, Garden City-based Golden Plains, which has $465 million in assets, becomes the succeeding institution.

The merger with the $75 million-asset Central Star creates one credit union with 15 branches, $540 million in assets and nearly 71,000 members, Golden Plains said in a news release.

Golden Plains said it expects the process of combining operations to take about six months.

Central Star was founded in 1940, originally to serve employees of the former Beech Aircraft Co.

Golden Plains, which operated 12 branches mostly located in western and southeast Kansas, said in the release that it already had 3,000 members in Sedgwick County.

Golden Plains said it plans to continue operating Central Star’s three area branches.

This story was originally published January 8, 2015 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Garden City credit union completes merger with Wichita-based Central Star."