RALEIGH, N.C. -
What started out as a novel way to get young members interested in saving money turned into a lesson in product testing after Coastal FCU discovered that ceramic piggy banks given as gifts contained high levels of lead.
CFCU gave the banks, which resemble Disney’s Nemo character, as gifts to members who opened Sea Savers Kids Club accounts between February 2006 and September 2007. The accounts are offered to members under the age of 12 to promote saving.
Approximately 960 of the original 1,300 fish banks, which were manufactured in China, have been returned to the credit union according to Joe Mecca, Coastal FCU’s director of community and corporate relationships.
“We have most of the banks sitting in storage,” Mecca said. “We’re waiting until the 150-day recall period is up before we return the banks to the distributor.”
TJ Promotions, the South El Monte, Calif., company that distributed the banks, said it is acting in full compliance with the U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission (CPSC) directive.
“We will take them (banks) back at the end of the 150-day recall period and dispose of them properly,” said Ronald Gui, a spokesman for the distribution company.
Mecca said Coastal FCU has never had an issue with promotional items before, but several well-publicized product recalls last year prompted the $1.79-billion CU to hire an independent lab to test the banks for lead content in the painted coating.
“The Mattel toy recall led us to discover the problem,” Mecca added. “We decided to have the product tested by a state lab and once we discovered the lead problem, we notified the CPSC and the recall notice went out.”
Although, the official recall notice wasn’t issued by the CPSC until this month, Coastal FCU had already started alerting members about the lead problem back in October. The CU also sent out letters to all members affected by the recall.
So far, no incidents or injuries have been reported according to CPSC.
Mecca said the 168,000-member CU has already moved on from the incident and is waiting for in-house designers to finish work on a new piggybank that will be manufactured in the U.S.
“The new bank will be a paper-based fold up that we plan on making available by February,” Mecca said. “This bank will not be an import.”
Mecca added that the membership has been very understanding throughout the entire ordeal. “It’s not unusual for them, it’s just another recall in a long line of recalls.”
