Keep singing, Jill.

Boy I would love to see the list of Western Corporate's 1,100 client CUs. A quick Google check only mentions they belong to the same PAC as OnPoint, but nothing beyond that.

"Boy I would love to see the list of Western Corporate's 1,100 client CUs. A quick Google check only mentions they belong to the same PAC as OnPoint, but nothing beyond that."

There are 29 corporate credit unions which are located regionally. WESCORP is basically the corporate credit union for the State of California though other CU's may join them as well. The main corporate credit union for Oregon is Northwest Corporate Credit Union. It apparently is not in any financial danger according to the NCUA statement. You can guess that WESCORP's seizure will have some impact on local CU's but the impact is not expected to be major. It's really too early to tell.

Greg C In Vancouver

OnPoint (nee' Portland Teachers Credit Union) got caught up in the whole Countrywide Insurance gig, didn't they? How are they doing? Does anybody know?

Given the bad rep they gained with me, I took almost everything out several years back...just before they tried to cover up 'scandals' by going anonymous as OnPoint.

Bankrate gives simple 1-5 star ratings and more detailed explanations for credit unions and banks. These seem pretty accurate seeing as both of the bank failures I have personally experienced were preceded by one-star ratings at bankrate. OnPoint currently has 3/5 which is middle of the road. More mystifying is how Advantis gets a good rating (4/5) despite offering an astronomical 4% interest on a checking account.

Good info. Thanks, Greg!

"More mystifying is how Advantis gets a good rating (4/5) despite offering an astronomical 4% interest on a checking account."

Dave C. The ability to offer higher rates of interest is based on the lower costs Advantis incurs. Mostly this is based on the fact that while OnPoint has over 15 branches, Advantis has only 5 and one of those is not a full service branch. Granted OnPoint is a much larger credit union in terms of asset size but still only about twice Advantis's size. You pay for convenience one way or the other.

Confession, I am on the Board at Advantis.

Greg C

Too early to tell basically means that the Feds have not gotten around to investigating Northwest Corporate Credit Union.

As for trusting Northwest Corporate Credit Union's own statements on their fiscal health...Well, their interest is in not causing a panic among and potentially losing a portion of their customer base during this contraction and change in the US economy. Kind of like trusting the veracity of a convicted felon on the witness stand.

Yeah, I know I am cynical. I am reminded about that daily from my family. However, the private sector where vested corporate interests spend tens of thousands of dollars on public relations to spin information has done nothing to win back my trust.

Couple that with banks like WellsFargo and Bank of America using TARP dollars to line the pockets of those on US Senate Banking committee and you start to why I perceive stuff the way I do ;)

As for sources on the last assertion, read the news on the 'Net or Google it. Put in "WellsFargo TARP Political Contribution" in the Google search bar.

"Too early to tell basically means that the Feds have not gotten around to investigating Northwest Corporate Credit Union."

Actually too early to tell means that it is too early to tell how individual CU's are going to be impacted by the failure of the two corporates. The NCUA has already annouced that NW Corp is in good shape. Most probably the NCUA already knows what indivudual CU's if any are going to be severely hurt here.

According to the the Wall Street Journal the NCUA has had PIMCO examining the portfolio of the two corporates for several weeks. It was based on the in depth anaylsis by PIMCO that the NCUA moved. All I can tell you is that my CU is not affected by the seizures. My guess is that an individual CU invested in either may feel some pain but that pain will not be fatal. Otherwise the NCUA would have already moved to seize that individual CU.

Greg C

I couldn't find Rivermark C.U. on that Bankrate site. Odd.

Greg C,

Thank you for your transparency. It is rare that a board member is open about their industry's affairs.

Can you clarify what NCUA is? I took it as Northwest Corporate Credit Union.

Also, is PIMCO an unassociated, government regulatory body? Does it have a mix of watchdogs and insiders taking a break from the credit industry? Or is it chuck full of industry insiders like the SEC was when Christopher Cox was heading it?

The NCUA is the National Credit Union Administration. It is the Federal Agency that regulates credit unions. It also manages the funds that insure your savings with credit unions up to $250,000 per account.

PIMCO is a private investment company and mutual fund firm that specializes in bonds and similar investment securities. In other words experts in knowing what individual securities are worth in this economy. The NCUA hired PIMCO to go in and look at the actual securities the Corporates were holding and advise the NCUA as to the quality of the holdings.

It was based on this advice that the NCUA decided to seize the two corporate credit unions on Friday. It is also based on their advice that the NCUA says the balance of the corporate credit unions are ok. As a hired gun PIMCO has no stake in the outcome of it's advice.

Greg C

Here's something interesting...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print

From April 2's Rolling Stone -
An absolutely BRILLIANT article on The Crisis.

I posted this in the spring break thread, but it's just too good...

Don, thanks for posting the link. This should be required reading for any legislator and stakeholder (read, "citizen") in this country.

I still can't believe that we are the same nation that broke up Ma Bell and now tolerates secretive super-monopolies that are "too big to fail."

The failure of the "corporate" credit unions-these are not retail outfits with branches-they service the credit unions affects us because when the NCUA pays out we have to contribute to the NCUA based on our size. The amt my employer, 1st tech CU, had to pay hurt but didn't kill us.

Total delinquency at 1st tech(loans/credit cards over 60 days past due) is approx 13m (total balances). Over half of that is indirect car loans (go to dealer pick a car, sit in the back w/the finance guy, drive the car home & get a coupon book from us 2 weeks later).

We have very few foreclosures and approx 50% of our mtgs are still with us-not sold. We didn't do exploding ARM or no doc or no down pmt loans.

"Total delinquency at 1st tech(loans/credit cards over 60 days past due) is approx 13m (total balances)."

But to put that in perspective 1st Tech has 156,000 members and about $2 billion dollars in total assets. That means delinquencies right now are about 7/10 of 1% of their overall assets. And remember that's not loans to be written off just total late pays right now. Sure some of those will result in write offs but not whole 13 million.

The figure I've heard on raises in the NCUA insurance rate to cover the corporate losses is an increase of about 1/10 of 1% of assets a year. That's small change for CU's of any size.

Greg C