A seven-month dance finally led to courtship as Canvas Credit Union merged with Western Rockies Federal Credit Union to grow to 33 branches and expand to the Western Slope for the first time in its 84-year history.

Colorado and National Credit Union Administration regulators approved the merger and the conversion happened late last month. The Western Rockies branches in Grand Junction, Rifle and Fruita are now orange and rebranded as Canvas.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

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“We were always looking for the right opportunity to expand our reach,” Ben Greiving, Canvas’ general counsel and chief of staff, said in an interview. “We didn’t have strong merger strategy in the last decade, but this merger came to us.”

The CEOs of the two companies — Todd Marksberry for Canvas and Kristi Porter for Western — had been acquaintances for years, talked about what a partnership might look like and eventually decided to go the merger route, he said.

“It is very exciting to see what was once an idea become a reality,” Porter said in a release. “This means so much to me because I know with Canvas we can provide even more value to our team, our members and our entire community.”

For the first 80 years of its existence, Englewood-based Canvas was the Public Service Credit Union. It started in 1938 as a credit union for the Public Service Company of Colorado employees. The name change was meant to avoid confusion over who could be members, Greiving said.

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The deal brings western-state expansion for Canvas, but it also brings a lot to those customers — who previously didn’t have access to business loans.

“That’s one of the things we’re most excited about,” Greiving said. “The (Western) branches weren’t really in a position to service the business community — it was primarily auto lending, mortgages and service to individuals. We’ll be introducing that to this market as we continue to integrate and roll out our products and services.”

Greiving said bank branches are still important in the era of online banking and apps.

“For us, one of the top focuses at Canvas is investing in the community,” he said. “It’s important to have a physical presence in the community for us to be able (to) do that. Those folks in the branch develop strong connections in the community, too.”

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Most of Canvas’ growth in recent years has been north, with a branch in Fort Collins and another on the Colorado State University campus — and south, where it added two branches in Castle Rock in recent years.

“Since moving to Colorado more than six years ago, I fell in love with our great state and the incredible people who make it even more vibrant,” Marksberry said in a release. “With that deep love for Coloradans driving us, our team has been dreaming about how we can expand our impact well beyond the Front Range. The opportunity to welcome the Western Rockies Federal Credit Union members and team to our Canvas family opens the door to manifest even more positive change for people across Colorado.”

Canvas now has more than 284,000 members and 750 employees.