Executive Summary Weekender 24-27 May 2008

By Christian Mullins

Executive Summary:

Nestled deep within the $300 billion mortgage relief package passed 19-2 by the Senate Banking Committee last Tuesday is a provision requiring lenders to submit to fingerprinting, which will be kept on file at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The provision requires any State-licensed loan originator to submit to a background check, with fingerprint identification a stipulation. The exact wording can be found on page 41, line 22 (.pdf file).

Navy Federal Credit Union, the worlds largest CU with over $35 billion in assets and 3.1 million members, has announced they will expand their charter to include members of the Army, Air Force, and Defense Department. The charter change is part of a larger overall expansion that will more than double the number of full service branches (currently 150) by 2012.

Educational Community Credit Union ($42m in assets) in Everett, Washington, will merge into MountainCrest Credit Union (formerly Snohomish County PUD CU) on May 31. The combined credit union will have $90 million in assets and almost 15,000 members. According to MountainCrest CU’s President and Chief Executive, Bob Schumaker, there will be no job losses from the merger, though one location will be closed.

Despite lower fixed rates on mortgage loans and an increase in mortgage applications, month-to-month home sales were down 1% in April. In addition, year-to-year home sales are down 17.5%, falling from an annual sales pace of 5.93 million units in April 2007 to 4.89 million units in April 2008. This, in turn, led to a 10.5% increase in homes available for sale, or 4.55 million units, representing an 11.2 month supply on the market at the current sales pace.

International Summary:

Antigua

Jennifer Browne, floor manager of Community First Co-operative Credit Union, was abducted from her home, stuffed in the trunk of her car, taken to the credit union, and forced to open the ATM to her kidnappers, who took an estimated $200,000. Browne was not seriously injured in the kidnapping/robbery. It is believed to be the first kidnapping/robbery of its type in the 49 year history of the country’s credit unions.

Robbed:

• TransWest Credit Union, Sandy, Utah, Friday. An elderly man walked into the CU Friday and waited for two members to leave before asking to see a manager. When he sat down, he displayed a handgun and gave robbery instructions to the manager, who proceeded to take an undisclosed amount of cash from four teller drawers. No one was injured.

Arrested, Arraigned, Charged, or Sentenced:

• A former manager from Allied Credit Union in Mobile, Alabama, pleaded guilty to approving and funding about $60,000 in loans to herself from 1991 until 2005. Records indicate Pamela Fogelman Gwin, 67, altered files a total of 634 times, including rewrites and payments, to maintain the fraud.