LOS ANGELES – More California credit unions last week reported large losses for 2007, putting an exclamation point on one of the worst years ever for credit unions.
“It’s really occurring all over the state,” Terrin Griffiths, an industry analyst in the California CU League’s research and information department, said last week. “While there are some struggles that are going on in much more integrated credit unions, really kind of what we’re seeing is credit unions are struggling overall.”
Several more California credit unions reported huge losses late last week, including Meriwest CU, which reported an $11.4 million fourth quarter loss and a $9.2 million loss for the year; SAFE CU, an $8.4 million fourth quarter loss and $5 million loss for the year; and Travis CU, $4 million loss for the quarter and $3 million for the year.
They join more than 20 other California credit unions reporting losses near or more than $1 million for the year, led by Wescom CU, $33.2 million; Telesis Community CU, $6.7 million; USA FCU, $5.7 million; American First CU, $5.1 million; Sterlent CU, $4.8 million; Kaiperm FCU, $3.8 million; Xerox FCU, $3.4 million; Financial Partners CU, $2.1 million and Musician’s Integrated FCU, $1.4 million.
The California league’s Griffiths, who recently co-authored an economic report on California credit unions, WestScan, said things are expected to get worse for the state’s credit unions in the coming months as the real estate crisis deepens and job losses mount.
