Battered CDCU Gets HelpingHand

HARAHAN, La. - (02/06/06) – ASI FCU, still digging out fromHurricane Katrina-related damages, was certified last week by theTreasury Department’s Community Development FinancialInstitutions program as eligible for the new round of CDFI grantsand loans. CDFI certification for the $208-million credit union,one of the biggest community development credit unions in thecountry, had lapsed. Treasury officials said this year’sfunding will be targeted at the hundreds of credit unions and otherCDFIs in the Gulf region that were battered by Hurricane Katrina,then Hurricane Rita. Separately, the National Federation of CDCUsannounced last week it had extended its secondary capitalcommitment to ASI, which was expiring, for another seven years, andincreased the amount from $250,000 to the Federation’smaximum allowable $300,000. “We’re trying to make astatement of our belief and faith in the future of theinstitution,” Cliff Rosenthal, director of the Federation,told The Credit Union Journal.