Another Nevada CU Fails

RENO , Nev. – NCUA took over and liquidated troubled Clearstar Financial CU last night, assigning the remnants of the one-time $175 million credit union to United FCU, of St. Joseph, Mich.

Clearstar Financial reported losses of $5.4 million for 2008, and $2.9 million for the first six months of 2009, and its assets had dwindled to $144 million by the time of the NCUA takeover. Its declining financial condition led to the closure and subsequent purchase and assumption by United FCU, NCUA said. United FCU has $940 million in assets and serves 78,000 members at 15 branches.

Clearstar Financial is the second large Nevada credit union failure in as many months, following August’s failure of Community FCU, which was acquired in a so-called purchase and assumption deal by Utah giant America First CU.