They are feeling good up in Muskego, Wis.–so good that Corporate Central Credit Union just put out a financials-laden press release trumpeting that it is in "great shape."
But the real story just may be the back story, the quotations that did not make the release. "We are well past the fight for survival–what we are about now is growth," said Chris Felton, senior vice president, member relations at Corporate Central Credit Union. "We added 40 full new members in recent months. By every yardstick, we are growing."
Felton added that Corporate Central's books are solidly black: "We have $21 million in retained earnings and another $55 million in paid in capital, as of November 30. "
Corporate Central also pointed out that it has "significant" liquidity.
Felton added that while considerable turmoil continues to surround corporate credit unions, "they are not all the same. All are often seen in the same negative light, but Corporate Central is different and it will be one of the corporates that stays open for business."
Felton is plain spoken. In 2009 Corporate Central–fresh off a loss of some $73 million in investment it had in U.S. Central Federal Credit Union -had to decide if it had the resources to go forward. "We asked our members and they expressed their confidence in us," said Felton, who pointed to a recently concluded perpetual contributed capital campaign that resulted in some $60 million in new member investments. "We told our members we could close or grow and they wanted us to grow."
Felton elaborated that "Corporate Central is back on the same strong financial footing we had before our U.S. Central losses."
It is "beyond a doubt," he said, that Corporate Central will be standing straight when the dust of the corporate credit union shake-up settles.
"That's why we put out a release. We want our members and our prospective members to know that we are healthy."
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