Credit unions

Four years after NCUA placed five corporate credit unions into conservatorship, the biggest question that remains is what will be the final cost to natural-person CUs.

It's been four years since the most cataclysmic and costly series of events in the history of U.S. credit unions: the conservatorship by NCUA of five failed corporates.

Credit Union Journal spoke with NCUA Director of Examination and Insurance Larry Fazio, who shared NCUA's view on its management of those five failed corporates' investments and the conservatorships.

LOS ANGELES – NCUA asked a federal court here yesterday to reconsider a March ruling dismissing the vast majority of $491 million of claims against Goldman Sachs for mortgage-backed securities the Wall Street bank sold to corporate credit union failures U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU, or at least certify the issue for an immediate review by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

DENVER – A lawyer for NCUA told a federal appeals panel this morning that billions of dollars in claims related to the corporate credit union bailout rely on whether the courts allow it to extend the nominal statute of limitations on securities claims until after it and the banking regulators take over failed institutions.

The improving bottom lines at credit unions across the country have been a dose of good news that is tempered by just one outstanding issue: how many more assessments will need to be paid to cover the costs of the failed corporate CU investments.

WICHITA, Kan. – A federal judge yesterday agreed to delay further proceedings in eight different NCUA suits against Wall Street banks over the failure of the corporate credit unions until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has decided whether NCUA filed the civil claims too late to satisfy the statute of limitations.

WICHITA, Kan. – Lawyers for more than a half-dozen Wall Street banks on Friday joined together in an unusual motion to urge the federal court here to stay proceedings in the various civil suits NCUA has brought against them until a federal appeals court has decided whether the credit union regulator waited too long to bring claims for the failure of five corporate credit unions.

ST. LOUIS – Missouri Corporate CU announced this morning Dennis DeGroodt will retire as CEO of the $1.2 billion corporate credit union July 31 and will be succeeded by Kathleen “Kitty” Gray, its chief financial officer.

LOS ANGELES – Standard & Poor’s called on a federal court here yesterday to dismiss a $5 billion civil suit brought by the U.S. Justice Department claiming the Wall Street rating agency ignored its own standards rating risky investments sold to, among others, WesCorp FCU and Eastern Financial Florida CU, two of the biggest credit union failures ever.

WICHITA, Kan. – A federal judge has set a hearing for April 29, when he will consider whether to delay as many as eight of NCUA’s suits claiming recompense from Wall Street banks over the corporate credit union debacle and whether the cases should be consolidated.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said it failed to recover any payments on insurance held by WesCorp FCU, U.S. Central FCU or any of the other three corporate credit union failures, despite millions of dollars in directors and officers premiums paid by the failed corporates.

LOS ANGELES – A federal court today dismissed civil negligence charges against Todd Lane, who had been chief financial officer of WesCorp FCU, as NCUA approved an out-of-court settlement with the last of what was once 16 defendants in the case sprung out of the collapse of the $34 billion corporate credit union.

PLANO, Texas – Catalyst Corporate FCU, the corporate credit union conglomerate constructed from four corporates—three of them failures—disclosed some of the details of last year’s purchase and assumption of the remnants of WesCorp FCU, the one-time $34 billion California failure.

LENEXA, Kan. – NCUA closed on the sale of the former headquarters of U.S. Central FCU, months after winding down the operations of the one-time $52 billion central bank for credit unions.

WICHITA, Kan. – A federal judge here yesterday dismissed the majority of $590 million of securities claims brought by NCUA against Credit Suisse Securities in the 2009 collapses of U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp, dealing the credit union regulator another defeat in its efforts to recoup losses for the biggest credit union failures ever.