Ben Franklin stockholders approve CAFCU acquisition

Stockholders of Ben Franklin Financial, the holding company for Ben Franklin Bank of Illinois, recently approved the bank's acquisition by Corporate America Family Credit Union.

First announced last July, CAFCU will acquire the assets and assume the liabilities of Arlington Heights-based Ben Franklin Bank in an all-cash transaction. Financial terms were not announced.

Ben Franklin Bank, which has branches in Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows, will be dissolved and become branch locations of CAFCU, according to the credit union. Ben Franklin customers will become members of CAFCU with full access to the credit union's products and services, as well as its larger lending limit, the credit union said last summer.

In addition to the stockholder's approval, the bank also received approval of the sale from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Approvals are still needed from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, officials said in a statement.

The acquisition is expected to become final in the third quarter of 2020, officials said.

Ben Franklin Bank was established in 1893 in Chicago as a building and loan association and has since become a full-service bank with and $93.2 million in assets. It moved to Arlington Heights in 1967 as Douglas Savings and Loan, and changed its name to Ben Franklin Bank in 1998.

CAFCU is 15th largest credit union in Illinois with assets totaling $616 million and providing banking services to more than 67,000 members, according to its website. Other suburban locations include Rosemont, Streamwood and Warrenville.