YUMA, Ariz. – NCUA brought in Thomas Martin, a long-time credit union executive, to manage AEA FCU, the one-time $410 million credit union taken over Friday evening.
Martin was CEO of Continental FCU, based in nearby Tempe, from March 2009 until earlier this year when that credit union was acquired by Chicago giant Alliant CU, and before that was chief financial officer at Arizona Central CU.
He will replace Denise Sweet-McGregor, the long-time AEA executive who had been serving as interim CEO over the past year upon the retirement of Ken Bredemeyer.
Failed member business loans at AEA have created losses of $25.9 million for 2009 and $4.7 million for the first three quarters of the year, pushing down its net worth below 2%. The failed MBLs were approved by the credit union’s former director of member business lending, Bill Liddle, who was indicted earlier this month on charges of taking kickbacks to approve the loans.
In taking over the ailing credit union, chartered by the Arizona Education Association, NCUA said the credit union is not adequately capitalized and has earnings insufficient to enable it to continue under present management.
Assets at the end of the third quarter had fallen all the way from $409 million in March 2009 to just $309 million.
