Broker Coordinates Mass Sale of Centrix Loans

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. –Ascend United, a broker of distressed loans for credit unions, announced yesterday plans to pool millions of dollars in credit union loans from failed subprime auto lender Centrix Financial to sell on the secondary market. The company, a subsidiary of the Washington CU League, has already obtained commitments of around $5 million in performing and non-performing Centrix loans from four credit unions and expects others of the hundreds of credit unions still holding Centrix loans on their books to participate, according to Phillip Slater, program manager for Ascend United. “There are a lot of credit unions out there who were involved in the Centrix implosion and there were a lot of losses along the way,” Slater told The Credit Union Journal. “So a sale of the Centrix accounts seemed like a natural fit for us.” The Ascend United initiative comes as dozens of credit union participation agreements in Centrix loan pools are unraveling. Recently, The Credit Union of Texas, one of the biggest Centrix participants, agreed to buy back $13 million of participated loans from Mission FCU. Dozens of other credit unions are also negotiating buybacks of participations pools. Ascend United is forming two pools of Centrix loans, one from performing loans, the other from non-performing loans.