ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said it has hired seven new examiners who will focus mainly on the California market, where plunging real estate values have infected all lenders.
The additional examiners come after California credit unions reported one of their worst years in decades, prompting many of them to move billions of additional funds into loan loss reserves in anticipation of greater delinquencies and losses this year.
“The credit union industry continues to experience strong financial performance. There are isolated, not systemic problems,” John McKechnie, chief spokesman for NCUA, told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. “The additional examiner staff is adequate to ensure that the Agency is well-prepared to meet the demands of a more sophisticated financial marketplace, and is able to respond to robust regulatory and supervisory requirements.”
