Ranks of Troubled CUs Grows

As a result of the sluggish economy, 5.13% of all insured shares are in credit unions with CAMEL 4 or 5 ratings, and there are 326 credit unions with such ratings, NCUA Chief Financial Officer Mary Ann Woodson told the NCUA Board last Thursday. Those credit unions represent about $36.5 billion in assets. By contrast, at the end of December there were 271 credit unions with those ratings. In addition, there are 1,634 credit unions with CAMEL 3 ratings, compared with 1,540 at the end of last December. In response to a question from NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz, Woodson said the agency has been steadily building up the reserves of the NCUSIF to prepare for paying out additional funds. Woodson said that the fund had a reserve balance of $520.8 million at the end of September and $19 billion in assets at the end of September. Its equity ratio was unchanged at 1.3%. There have been 21 credit union failures through Sept. 30, 11 were involuntary liquidations and 10 were assisted mergers. By contrast, there were 18 credit union failures in 2008. The Temporary Corporate Stabilization Fund, which Congress created in July at the request of the NCUA and the credit union trade associations following the agency’s placing U.S. Central and Western Corporate Federal Credit Unions into conservatorship, has $1.3 billion in assets and $6.36 billion in estimated liabilities. This includes a $1 billion capital note for U.S. Central as a result of the money the agency injected into the troubled corporate earlier this year. The rest is made up of $5.33 billion set aside for corporate CU losses, a $1.3 million interest payment owed the U.S. Treasury and $30 million in deferred revenue. Congress allowed the fund to operate with a deficit to give the agency the flexibility to respond to problems of corporate credit unions. The board also approved a final rule outlining the details of the increase in the maximum share insurance amount from $100,000 to $250,000 through the end of 2013. NCUA Staff Attorney Frank Kressman explained that the rule made permanent the requirement that credit unions display signs signifying the amount that is insured. He also said the agency will encourage credit unions to inform members with more than $250,000 in any account about ways to structure their accounts to ensure that they are adequately insured. –[email protected]