The CUJ Daily

ASI Boosts Asset Cushion

DUBLIN, Ohio-American Share Insurance said last year's conversion of Patelco Credit Union from NCUSIF, helped swell its assets by 28% last year to a new high of $182.3 million. But the credit union insurer, under fire since the Patelco move, said the addition of the $2.8 billion CU diluted its reserves ratio from 1.44 to just 1.31 (dollars reserved per $100 of insured deposits, its lowest ever.

That still exceeds the reserve ratio for all the federal insurance funds, including NCUSIF, which ended 2002 at just 1.25, ASI noted in its annual financial report, obtained by The Credit Union Journal.

"The company has never had any trouble paying its obligations," Duane Welsh, the company's general counsel, told The Credit Union Journal.

ASI also reported it more than doubled its provision for losses to $1.4 million last year, pushing down its net income by two-thirds to $1.1 million for 2002, from $3.3 million in 2001.

NAFCU Won't Oppose Relief Bill

ARLINGTON, Va.-NAFCU said it won't oppose a proposal in the pending regulatory relief bill to allow the nation's 309 privately insured credit unions to join the Federal Home Loan Bank System, even though the trade association has come out against private insurance.

NAFCU President Fred Becker, whose group backed a Consumer Federation of America referendum opposing private deposit insurance, said as long as the private insurance option is allowed for state charters they will not oppose the FHLB initiative.

NAFCU's opposition to the FHLB measure last year drew a stern rebuke from the powerful House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley, whose Ohio district encompasses American Share Insurance.

The FHLB provision was expected to be among the issues discussed during the hearing on the regulatory relief bill before Oxley's panel (see story page 1).

CPFCU Expands Branch Network

CONCORD, Calif.-Fast-growing California Pacific FCU said it has acquired a 12,000 square-foot building in the new Sand Creek Business Park in Brentwood where it will open a new branch.

The credit union paid $2 million for the structure, the third building in the first phase of the business park. The credit union, formerly known as Avon Refinery FCU, serves 5,000 members and has about $55 million in assets.

ABA 'Helps' Raise PAC Funds

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.-In one of the biggest political fundraisers ever for credit unions the California CU League said it raised $104,000 for its political action during it annual Big Valley Educational Conference.

The activities included the sale at a silent auction of an autographed copy of a column by credit union nemesis Keith Leggett of the American Bankers Association, who was a guest speaker at last year's Big Valley conference.

The majority of the funds, $72,000, were raised at the annual golf tournament at Pebble Beach.

The largest credit union fundraiser to date was an event held last year by the Michigan Credit Union League, which raised more than $200,000 for the gubernatorial campaign of Jennifer Granholm.

Harland Signs Two CU Clients

ATLANTA-Harland Financial Services, a unit of John H. Harland Co., said both Bethel G.T. FCU, in Queens, N.Y., and American Museum of Natural History Employees FCU, in New York City, have agreed to implement the company's CuServ in-hour data processing system.

Harland said more than 275 credit unions have implemented its CuServ solution, a turnkey hardware and software system designed for smaller credit unions.

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