Credit unions

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA is wrestling with a number of major issues in devising a plan to dispose of as much as $40 billion of troubled assets held by the corporate credit union network, including who should benefit from the sale of the assets, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

WARRENVILLE, Ill. – Corporate credit unions are lobbying NCUA mightily for their future, with one plan emerging that would combine all 27 corporates into a single entity serving the whole country.

LENEXA, Kan. – NCUA on Monday announced losses at U.S. Central FCU have eaten $331 million of the $1 billion capital note issued to the troubled corporate credit union last year, making a total of $2.7 billion of funds in credit union funds lost on U.S. Central so far.

WASHINGTON-A CUNA task force on corporate credit unions recommended last week that corporate credit unions cease being investment houses for natural person credit unions - the genesis of their financial problems - and restrict their activities in the investment markets to being pass-throughs or broker-dealers.

The task force report comes as NCUA is collecting public comments on its proposed reforms and as more than half of the corporate are reporting losses for 2009.

The task force proposal recognizes the critical role the corporates play in the payments and settlements systems for credit unions and in other areas, and foresees some kind of structure to enable that role to continue. But it makes no definite proposals along those lines.

WASHINGTON – Growing numbers of credit union executives are calling for an NCUA investigation into the causes of the corporate credit union meltdown.

LENEXA, Kan. – A year after the takeover of U.S. Central FCU, David Dickens, the former chief investment strategist who was fired as losses began to spiral out of control at the one-time $52 billion corporate credit union, is fighting with NCUA over the terms of his severance.

WASHINGTON – A CUNA task force on corporate credit unions on Monday recommended that corporate credit unions cease being investment houses for natural person credit unions – the genesis of their financial problems – and restrict their activities in the investment markets to being pass-throughs or broker-dealers.

DULUTH, Ga. – Georgia Central CU is the latest corporate credit union to report that its exposure to losses at U.S. Central FCU pushed it into the red again in 2009.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – In trying to revive the corporate credit union system, NCUA is struggling with a major legacy of the failures of the two biggest corporates, U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU, and the question of how to keep the spreading failures from dissuading natural person credit unions from recapitalizing the system.

CHARLESTON, W.V. – West Virginia Corporate CU has called a special meeting of its members for Friday to discuss the proposed corporate credit union reforms and the affect on its members’ capital by the $245 million corporate’s losses in 2009 and 2008.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – Mid-Atlantic Corporate FCU, the conservatively-run institution that has become the nation’s fifth-largest corporate, reported another profitable year for 2009, albeit not as profitable as the year before.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Volunteer Corporate CU last week reported losses for 2009 grew to $19.4 million, from $6 million for 2008, mostly due to its exposure to U.S. Central FCU – but VolCorp, one of the few adequately capitalized corporates, does not expect the additional losses to cause it to deplete its members’ capital.

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Virginia Corporate FCU, one of a growing number of corporate credit unions where losses are eating into members’ capital, announced the departure of its president and CEO James Hansen, as of this Friday.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Corporate credit unions, especially the smaller corporates that have been largely unaffected by the huge losses on mortgage-backed securities sweeping through the system, are calling on NCUA to temper its proposed reforms, which they fear could make it more difficult for them to compete.

ORLANDO, Fla.-Corporate credit unions continued to hold securities showing unrealized losses of $17 billion at year-end 2009, which is down from the more than $25 billion in unrealized losses corporates held at the beginning of the year, but NCUA cautioned against reading too much into those numbers because growing amounts of losses are being realized.

WALLINGFORD, Conn.-Constitution Corporate FCU, which already had a $25-million deficit guarantee from NCUA, reported last week it lost $100.2 million in 2009, wiping out all of its members' capital.

WALLINGFORD, Conn. – Constitution Corporate FCU, which already had a $25-million deficit guarantee from NCUA, on Tuesday said it lost $100.2 million in 2009, wiping out all of its members' capital.

ORLANDO, Fla.-NCUA made clear at last week's town hall meeting that while it values the input it is receiving from natural-person credit unions, it continues to move forward with most aspects of overhaul of its corporate regulations (Part 704).