HAVERHILL, Mass. – The most recent data from NCUA and the FDIC show that Northeast Community Credit Union members could merge their CU into a money losing bank if they vote to approve the deal.

The $96 million Northeast Community and local Haverhill bank, both state chartered, announced their intention to merge under Massachusetts regulations in July 2007. But NCUA has since required the credit union to give members its mandatory charter conversion disclosure statements and to hold another vote.

But in the intervening months since the two announced their pending linkup, circumstances have changed for the bank.

According to FDIC records, Haverhill lost $192,000 as of the end of 2007 and saw the percentage of its loans non-current at end of the year rise from zero as of the end of 2006 to 2.64% as of the end of 2007. Further, the percentage of its construction and development loans not current at the end of 2006 climbed to 42.19% (up from zero the year before) and the bank's return on assets dropped to-12% and its return on equity to -1.11%. These numbers in particular were sharply down when compared to other Massachusetts state-chartered banks which posted ROA for 2007 at 0.90% and ROE at 10.04%.

By comparison, Northeast Community made over $450,000 last year and had an ROA of 0.46%.