Mid-Year Misery Spreads Among CUs

LAS VEGAS – The economic slowdown that has troubled credit unions started to spread through the Silver State in the second quarter, with most of the biggest credit unions reporting losses at mid-year.
 
WestStar CU reported a $2.2 million mid-year loss; Clearstar Financial CU reported a $1.6 million loss; Community One FCU a $1.2 million loss; Ensign FCU a $1.1 million loss and Greater Nevada FCU a $840,000 loss.
 
Credit unions all over the country, especially in hard-hit Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona, are reporting large losses, most of them related to the mortgage crisis.
 
Suncoast Schools FCU in Tampa reported a $26.2 million mid-year loss. GTE FCU, also in Tampa Fla., reported that losses widened to $19.2 million at mid-year from $8.2 million at the end of the first quarter. Fairwinds CU, across the state in Orlando, reported an $8.5 million loss for the second quarter, giving a $6.5 million mid-year loss. Jax FCU in Jacksonville had a $2.1 million mid-year loss.
 
Sunmark FCU, in upstate Schenectady, N.Y., reported a $6.2 million mid-year loss, almost all of it in the second quarter. In Texas, Credit Union of Texas had a $1.7 million loss and United San Antonio Community FCU a $1.2 million loss. In Michigan, NuVision CU had a $1.5 million loss.
 
High Desert FCU in California yesterday reported it had a $4.7 million mid-year loss, one of more than a dozen California credit unions that reported losses of more than $1 million.
 
Daniel Penrod, a research analyst for the California CU League, which also serves Nevada, said the losses should be held in perspective. “While the dollar amount may sound like a lot, what we need to keep in mind is the size of the entity,” he told The Credit Union Journal. He emphasized that many of the credit unions reporting large losses are well-capitalized and able to absorb the losses without putting the credit union in jeopardy.