PEORIA, Ill. – CEFCU, the state’s second-largest credit union, said yesterday it will be paying members a $7 million dividend this year, up from last year’s $6 million.
This year’s payout comes even after the $4.2 billion credit union is absorbing a large California credit union failure, Valley CU, and even after CEFCU recorded a $5.1 million charge for the corporate credit union bailout.
Despite the charge, CEFCU reported $41.5 million in net income for the first three quarters of the year, up from $31.2 million for the same period last year.
We don't return a dividend every year. What's letting us do it when so many other things are going on in the financial industry is that our capital situation is very strong," said Mark Spenny, president of CEFCU. "We didn't have a credit crunch here. In fact, we had a record year in terms of loans.”
Since 2000, CEFCU, formerly known as Citizens Equity First CU, has returned $40 million in extraordinary dividends to its 265,000 members throughout central Illinois.
