SAN DIEGO – State regulators said yesterday they have approved the merger of Financial 21 Community CU, a $133 million credit union that was wounded by an ill-fated foray into subprime auto loans, into California Coast CU, the San Diego giant’s second large merger in the last few months.
The Department of Financial Institutions also announced approval for OCHA CU, a troubled $22 million credit union in Orange, into Pacific Community CU, in Fullerton. OCHA reported a $57,000 loss for the first six months of the year, after a $767,000 loss for 2007, and an 18% decline in assets over the past year.
Financial 21 Community, one of the biggest players in the Centrix Financial debacle, reported just $37,000 in net income for the first six months of the year and almost $60,000 of unrealized investment losses, after a loss of $106,000 for 2007. Financial 21 Community is a privately insured credit union, with coverage through ASI.
California Coast, itself hurting from troubles in the hard-hit southern California real estate markets, recently completed a combination with First Future CU, creating a $1.8 billion credit union. The combined credit unions reported losses of $2.4 million at mid-year.
The deal follows recent assisted mergers of several large California credit unions, including Kaiperm FCU, Sterlent CU and Cal State 9 CU.
