SALT LAKE CITY – Beehive CU, which announced last week it was abandoning its bid to convert to a mutual savings bank, reported the decision was preceded by a $1.8 million loss for its fourth quarter, and a $1.5 million loss for the year.
Officials with the $190 million credit union cited "unprecedented turmoil in America's economy, especially in the banking arena" and an extreme reluctance by federal regulators to approve charter applications in this environment," as the reasons for changing courses on the charter change.
In fact, banking regulators generally will not approve new charters for institutions that have reported losses in recent per iods, especially during the current financial crisis.
The 55-year-old credit union’s financial woes come amid one of the worst banking crisis to hit Utah in decades, with many of the state’s biggest credit unions reporting large losses for 2008. That includes: Mountain America CU, a $22.5 million loss; Cyprus FCU a $10.2 million loss; Transwest FCU, a $5.8 million loss; Utah Central CU, a $3.1 million loss; and Utah First FCU, a loss of $476,000.
The conversion to bank, which would have been the state’s first, was approved in Feb. 2008 by 53% of the credit union’s voting members.
