CU Branches Survive California Fires

TEMPE, Ariz. – The regional director for NCUA’s Region V, based here, said NCUA has contacted all credit unions in the areas affected by California’s wildfires this week and confirmed no branches were lost to the flames. Melinda Love told the Credit Union Journal there were a number of branch closures initially, “but that number is down to 10 at this time–mostly due to being in areas that still are evacuated, or the staff has been evacuated and cannot get to work. We expect those branches to open if not [today], then at the latest on Monday.” Love said the long-term impact of this week’s fires will be on the members, including their home and auto loans. As of Thursday afternoon, the California CU League still had not received any reports of credit union members or employees losing their houses, but with thousands of structures burned in the state, at least some losses seem inevitable. In that case, Love said, “Hopefully, there will be sufficient insurance on the homes to extinguish the debt. There may be some cases where homeowners will take losses, but we won’t know for several weeks, until the disaster is completely over. The long-term regional impact, of course, also is unknown.” Love said NCUA’s role during an emergency of this sort is to be ready to give assistance where needed. “We’re the insurer. We won’t offer examiners to assist on a teller line, but we will keep involved in what’s happening. If a branch had burned down, we would have worked with other credit unions in the area to partner with them, worked with the league, or served in other facilitator roles.” In other fire-related news, CUNA Mutual Group urged all of its insured credit unions whose members have sustained losses to contact the company immediately. CMG said any CU with property or casualty claims should call its Credit Union Protection Response Center at 1-800-637-2676, and pledged all calls would be answered 24/7/365.