With NCUA deadlines nearing on recapitalizing the corporates, the jockeying among credit unions and corporates about the shape of provider services focused on the Mountain States last week with at least two state trade groups paying attention to the fate of the $1.9 billion SunCorp.
Officials of Colorado-based SunCorp, were mum on the series of meetings and a flurry of emails regarding its plans to meet the NCUA's Oct. 20 recapitalization guidelines.
"We will have no comment" said a spokeswoman for SunCorp of Westminster regarding a report the corporate had won clearance from the NCUA for $50 million to $60 million in required capital down from an original $70 million threshold.
Insiders had said the $70 million had become a struggle to meet among participating CUs in the network. SunCorp serves CUs in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nebraska.
Meanwhile, both the Utah League of Credit Unions and the Mountain West Credit Union Association, stressing that corporate decision-making be made "by individual credit union management" but with an eye toward protecting the system, have for weeks been conducting a series of meetings and forums to discuss SunCorp's future.
Last week, the Utah League held a roundtable forum in Salt Lake City at which the topic was billed as "What is the world without SunCorp? What are some options? What ones are you considering?"
League President/CEO Scott Simpson had said Utah CUs, in dealing with the corporate dilemma, "have the options that are available to any other credit union in the country," but it would "be irresponsible speculation" to discuss the current scenario involving SunCorp.
A number of large CUs in Colorado at least have said they are still mulling their investment in SunCorp or have chosen to find other providers, including other corporates or Federal Reserve district banks, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which covers many of the Mountain States.
The Fed itself has made known its keen interest in picking up any corporate slack, dispatching sales reps to league meetings to answer questions. A top Fed sales executive from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago spoke at a California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues meeting in Newport Beach in June.
In Denver, Scott Earl, president/CEO of the newly formed Mountain West Credit Union Association, made up of the former Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming leagues, said it too has had numerous discussions on the corporates, SunCorp and recapitalization, including sessions held during the annual meeting last March in Colorado Springs.
In a March email to Mountain West members, Earl wrote that the "credit union movement is at a crossroads regarding the future of the corporate credit union network, with each credit union currently working through its own decision."
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