DEARBORN, Mich. – Regulators on Friday took over Rouge Employees CU, the credit union serving employees of Ford’s famed Rouge River auto plant, and merged the remnants of the failed credit union into Chief Financial FCU, the Pontiac-based auto workers credit union.
Rouge Employees, which was chartered in 1964, has been on a steady decline for the past three years, with assets dwindling from $50 million to less than $23 million, and losses of $1.2 million in 2008 and $836,244 for the first quarter of 2009. It has negative equity of more than $534,000.
Rouge Employees is the fifth credit union failure of the year and the state's first credit union to close since Huron River Area CU of Ann Arbor in November 2007.
Rouge Employees operated one branch in Dearborn, which is to reopen today as a branch of Chief Financial.
Chief Financial, formerly known as Chief Pontiac FCU, serves employees of the Chevrolet, Pontiac, Canada Car Group, Pontiac Division of General Motors, and employees of the General Motors Service Parts Operations, as well as employees of the Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac Car Group, Orion Assembly Division, of General Motors.
