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Top Headlines
Federation Training Credit Unions in Service to Underserved:
2010 CDCU Institute™ Registration Extended to July 29
(July 22, 2010 – New York, NY) The Federation has annouced a deadline extension for registration to its premier professional development program, the CDCU Institute™, scheduled to take place August 8-13, 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin. The new deadline to register for the 2010 CDCU Institute™ is July 29, 2010.
The first and only professional development program of its type nationwide, the Federation’s CDCU Institute™ provides participants with a unique training experience that focuses on credit union management and community economic development. Enrollment is open to credit unions of all types and sizes.
Now celebrating its 11th year, the CDCU Institute™ has trained more than 200 credit union staff and board members, and graduated a total of 117 students from its three-year training program. Students that complete all three-years graduate with a Certificate in CDCU Management!
For details about the CDCU Institute™, including the 2010 brochure and application form, please click here.
To read the full press release, please click here.
Low-income Communities and the Great Recession
Federation Report Finds CDCUs Still Growing Despite Economy
(July 21, 2010 - New York, NY) A new study released by Federation examines the impact of the financial crisis on credit unions that specialize in serving low-income populations.
These nonprofit institutions, known as community development credit unions (CDCUs), suffered significant stress but also demonstrated resilience and growth in 2009, according to the study. “Despite the enormous pain inflicted by the crisis, CDCUs remain a viable and vital resource for the recovery of low-income communities,” said Clifford N. Rosenthal, President/CEO of the Federation and co-author of the study.
The study, entitled Low-Income Communities and the Great Recession: Financial Trends in CDCUs, 2009, presents data on trends in lending, savings, operations, and balance sheets of 208 CDCUs across the United States. In 2009, these institutions served more than one-million members with aggregate assets exceeding $5 billion. The study compares CDCU performance to that of all federally insured credit unions, and also includes analysis by region and asset size.
To read the full press release, please click here.
CDCU Opens “Green” Branch in San Francisco’s Skid Row
Only Regulated Financial Institution in Redevelopment Corridor
(July 12, 2010 – San Francisco, CA) Residents of San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood, have reason to celebrate now that Northeast Community Federal Credit Union (NECFCU), a $10-million-in-assets community development credit union (CDCU) serving more than 1,650 members, has opened its fourth retail location. Located in a “green” building on the corner of Howard Street and Sixth Street, the SOMA branch is NECFCU’s latest endeavor to expand service to a community in desperate need of accessible and reliable financial services.
San Francisco’s Sixth Street corridor is a mixed-use community, roughly bounded by Stevenson, Mission and Natoma Streets in the north; Fifth Street in the east; Harrison Street in the south; and Seventh Street in the west. The area is characterized by high rates of homelessness and drug use throughout the community, which has led to large numbers of vacant ground-floor commercial spaces; a prevalence of older residential and commercial buildings, including many single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels; and a derth in regulated financial service providers, with check cashers, payday lenders, pawn shops, and loan brokers among the most widely-available financial institutions in the community.
Officials speaking at the event included California State Senator Leland Yee; San Francisco City Treasurer José Cisneros; and representatives from the office of State Assemblymember Fiona Ma; the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA); the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency; the SOMA Project Area Committee; Urban Solutions; and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions (Federation).
Special recognition was made to Patelco Credit Union, a San Francisco-based $4-billion-in-assets credit union that has been one of Northeast Community FCU’s strongest supporters over the years, assisting with the development of the CDCU’s branches in the Tenderloin, Visitacion Valley, and now SOMA; as well as providing each of those locations with Patelco ATMs, which the CDCU members can use free of charge.
To read the full press release, please click here.
CU Breakthrough™ Sets Record for CDFI Certifications
Federation Helping CUs of All Sizes “Do More” to Serve LMI Members
(July 12, 2010 – New York, NY) The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions’ (Federation’s) CU Breakthrough™ consulting service is pleased to announce that in less than six weeks, between March 15 and April 30, it assisted nearly 40 credit unions in the preparation of certification applications to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund.
This record demand for certification came from credit unions looking to tap into Treasury’s Community Development Capital Initiative (CDCI), which is making low-interest, long-term secondary capital available to CDFI-certified community development credit unions (CDCUs). The Federation successfully met the increased demand by developing a methodology based on random sampling, which allowed it to determine target market eligibility much more accurately and efficiently than ever before. Only seven months into the current year, this is already the largest number of credit union CDFI certification applications ever submitted to the CDFI Fund in any given year. If all credit union applications are approved, the total number of CDFI-certified credit unions will increase by 25 percent.
The most recent announcement from the CDFI Fund listed seven new CDFI-certified CDCUs: Cooperative Center FCU (Berkeley, CA), CoVantage CU (Antigo, WI), Foss Avenue Baptist Church FCU (Flint, MY), Liberty County Teachers FCU (Liberty, TX), Northland Area FCU (Oscada, MI), Potlatch No. 1 FCU (Lewiston, ID), and SunTide FCU (Corpus Christi, TX). Six credit unions were also certified in May: Birmingham Financial FCU (Birmingham, AL), Credit Union of Atlanta (Atlanta, GA), Fidelis FCU (New York, NY), Old West FCU (Portland, OR), Pacific Crest FCU (Klamath Falls, OR), and UNO FCU (New Orleans, LA).
These new certifications bringing the total number of CDFI-certified credit unions to an all-time high of 186, and all but two of the eleven newly-certified CDCUs are members of the Federation who took advantage of its CU Breakthrough™ consulting service to apply for certification.
To read the full press release, please click here.
Federation to Expand Consulting and Technical Assistance for Credit Unions
(June 28, 2010 – New York, NY) Responding to the extreme stress in the credit union community on the one hand, and the growing opportunities to access federal resources on the other, the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions (Federation) has announced a systematic expansion of its consulting and technical assistance services for credit unions. The new reorganization aims to strengthen the Federation’s Technical Assistance to its member CDCUs, while expanding its CU Breakthrough™ consulting services for all credit unions looking to increase their impact in underserved communities.
“There is growing alarm among small credit unions that the expenses for corporate stabilization and the Share Insurance Fund will increase pressure to merge or liquidate them,” said Federation President/CEO Cliff Rosenthal. “Even small credit unions that are well-capitalized and present minimal risk to the Fund are running scared. To address this, the Federation will be supporting several initiatives, including the ‘We Care’ program spearheaded by Joy Cousminer of Bethex FCU, and our Spirit Network of faith-based credit unions, as a way to proactively reach out to some of our smallest CDCUs."
Additionally, Brian Gately, formerly Director of Technical Assistance, will now serve as the Federation’s Senior Consultant for Small and Emerging Credit Unions, leveraging his extensive experience to help small credit unions meet the myriad regulatory and compliance requirements.
But it won’t stop there: this year, the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund will have more funding and programs available than ever before, and the Federation will work diligently to ensure credit unions receive their fair share.
To read the full press release, please click here.
