Credit unions

LENEXA, Kan. – NCUA this afternoon decided to replace James Nance, the former U.S. Central FCU executive brought in to run the one-time $52 billion corporate credit union under conservatorship, and replace him with Francois Henriquez, the corporate’s long-time general counsel.

LENEXA, Kan. – NCUA this afternoon decided to replace James Nance, the former U.S. Central FCU executive brought in to run the one-time $52 billion corporate credit union under conservatorship, and replace him with Francois Henriquez, the corporate’s long-time general counsel.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The NCUA Board last week voted to assess credit unions a $1.06 billion premium to pay for growing losses in the corporate credit union network and among natural person credit unions.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA warned corporate credit unions to expect additional impairment of their capital based on the losses for 2008 reported by U.S. Central FCU last Friday.

LENEXA , Kan. – NCUA yesterday that restated financials for U.S. Central FCU for the first six months of 2009, show that unrealized losses on the corporate credit union’s investments grew to $11 billion at mid-year, from $8.5 billion at year-end 2008.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Corporate One FCU, one of a handful of corporate credit unions struggling under the weight of large mortgage-backed securities holdings, said yesterday its expects to record additional losses on its MBSs due to the continued deterioration of the U.S. housing and mortgage and the global credit markets.

LENEXA, Kan. – NCUA was insisting yesterday that U.S. Central FCU remains a "viable" credit union even as some industry experts were calling for the liquidation of the one-time $52 million institution, being run under federal conservatorship since March 20.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Credit union representatives, not NCUA, will decide the number of corporate credit unions that will survive the expected consolidation of the corporate system, according to NCUA.

LENEXA, Kan. – U.S. Central FCU, which reported a whopping $4.9 billion loss for 2008, detailed new exposures to the ongoing credit crunch in its annual report issued Friday night.

LENEXA, Kan. – NCUA said this evening it still believes U.S. Central FCU is a "viable" credit union, even after it issued audited financials for 2008 showing a quadrupling of previously reported losses to almost $5 billion.

LENEXA, Kan. – NCUA said this evening it still believes U.S. Central FCU is a "viable" credit union, even after it issued audited financials for 2008 showing a quadrupling of previously reported losses to almost $5 billion.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Consultant and former NCUA Chair Dennis Dollar sees the task force recommendations closely mirroring what the agency is likely to put forth in its own proposal:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Terry Halleck, president and CEO of The Golden 1 CU, Sacramento, Calif., said the task force's proposals "sound like a good plan to me. They definitely need to create efficiencies within the system, so there should be fewer corporates. We had to write off $44 million just for WesCorp, so the investment change is a positive one because we don't want to see the corporates being in that position again. The corporates did a great job of getting additional yields for the credit unions that invested in those, but at a great cost that we have all had to bear this year.

LAS VEGAS — Brad Beal, president and CEO, Nevada FCU, and chairman of NAFCU's board, noted, "The changes are intended to mitigate the risk involved. Some of the corporates got pretty heavily involved in private label, mortgage-backed securities. The investment changes are designed to mitigate risk, which I feel is a really good thing.

WEBSTER, Mass. — Given the emotions and costs surrounding losses and failures by corporate credit unions this year, there was great potential for a task force studying the issue to be caught up in politics.

LENEXA, Kansas — U.S. Central Corporate CU, which would be eliminated under the recommendations by the joint CUNA/NAFCU task force, declined comment on the report, noting it is in conservatorship and under the control of NCUA. They agency's John McKechnie said both the top-tier corporate and the regulator were not commenting on the task report, aside from a statement from NCUA Chair Deborah Matz: "NCUA is in the process of reviewing the correspondence from the Corporate Task Force. As we move through the corporate rulemaking process, NCUA will carefully evaluate all input from stakeholders with the goal of producing a corporate regime that is stronger, more durable and better suited to the changing needs of the credit union industry."

PHOENIX — After applauding CUNA and NAFCU for a "significant step forward" in forming the joint task force on corporates, the Arizona CU League's Pat Bodnar said, "ACUL feels that it is premature to form an opinion at this time regarding the potential impact of the recommendations outlined in the task force report. It is essential to communicate with our member credit unions about any important issues impacting the credit union movement. We have asked that our member credit unions provide comment on NCUA's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Each credit unions' individual situation is unique, influencing their comments. A statewide collective opinion has not been determined, however we are reaching out to our credit unions to gather their thoughts and reactions in order to support them in the best way possible."

MIDDLETOWN, Penn. — One week after public release of recommendations for changes to the way corporate CUs operate, reaction is generally mixed among natural-person CUs and corporates themselves.