Credit unions

PHOENIX – Members of FirstCorp have officially approved a “unique consolidation” of the corporate into Catalyst Corporate FCU, Plano, Texas.

Credit union board members are being reminded to get their liquidity plans in order, while also preparing for an iffy recovery in the economy.

LOS ANGELES – Lawyers for NCUA failed to reach a settlement last week with representatives for Todd Lane, the former chief financial officer at WesCorp FCU, but talks will continue towards a deal.

LOS ANGELES – Lawyers for NCUA are scheduled to meet tomorrow with lawyers for former WesCorp FCU Chief Financial Officer Todd Lane to discuss a potential settlement of civil negligence claims brought by NCUA in the 2009 collapse of the one-time $34-billion corporate credit union.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz hailed Wednesday’s federal court ruling denying a bid by Wall Street banks to dismiss NCUA’s suits regarding corporate credit union investments and said the agency is determined to see the cases through.

WICHITA, Kan. – A federal court yesterday rejected separate bids by two Wall Street banks to dismiss claims by NCUA over the banks sale of billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities to two failed corporate credit unions, U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU, ruling the suits must proceed.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The NCUA Board this morning approved a 9.5 basis point assessment for the corporate credit union resolution, a total of $790.5 million.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA has set this year’s corporate credit union assessment at 9.5 basis points, a total of $790.53 million.

As its new name implied, Western Bridge Corporate FCU was designed to be a short-term bridge to something new — ideally, a new corporate capitalized by member credit unions — that was made up of something old: most of WesCorp's operations.

NCUA board member Michael Fryzel describes the mood and the thinking at NCUA in the months leading up to the conservatorship of WesCorp and U.S. Central, and shares how quickly concerns over WesCorp turned to full-fledged recognition there were significant problems and conservatorship was the only option.

How one corporate came to grow fast, grow big, and grow into a problem that couldn't be resolved.

Not until Feb. 26, 2009, did discussion about real trouble at WesCorp begin in the NCUA boardroom. That's when it was brought to the board's attention that expected losses at WesCorp were well ahead of the corporate's $2-billion capital position.

Phil Perkins shouldered the task of guiding WesCorp FCU after NCUA conserved the former $32-billion corporate giant. He talked with Credit Union Journal about his experiences at WesCorp/Western Bridge.

Some highlights from the history of WesCorp.

Credit Union Journal filed a Freedom of Information Act request with NCUA on Dec. 11, 2011 and as part of that request asked for minutes from NCUA board meetings from January 2007 through September 2011, in which WesCorp/Western Bridge was discussed.

LOS ANGELES – Lawyers for NCUA yesterday defended their bid to bar testimony from NCUA Board members Debbie Matz and Gigi Hyland in the civil trial of former WesCorp FCU CEO Bob Siravo by insisting the two Board members “have no direct personal factual information” about the 2009 collapse of the one-time $34 billion corporate credit union.

Lawyers for NCUA asked a federal court last week to bar potentially embarrassing testimony by NCUA Board Members Debbie Matz and Gigi Hyland and former Chief Corporate Examiner Kent Buckham in the civil trial over the 2009 collapse of WesCorp FCU.