NEW YORK — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services recently announced that it has found the corporate credit union system relatively healthy, but competitive pressures and "isolated cases of increased risk taking" are causing concern.
While their low risk profile, strong liquidity, and sound financial position will buoy corporates for now, the S&P analysts said concerns over competition and some increased risk "have resulted in our longer-term outlook for the industry turning negative." However, these concerns were not enough to change any of the current ratings or outlooks for the individual rated corporates.
"We are concerned because this dynamic has caused some corporates to increase risks both in the interests of serving the members and simply to earn supplemental revenue," a press statement read. "Most of the risk taking has been incremental and largely within the corporates' ability to manage–current mortgage-backed fixed-income securities market upheaval not withstanding."
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S&P expressed greater concern over loan participations, which the rating company said the corporates have relatively little experience with. Additionally, S&P noted the fairly recent ability of credit unions to use corporates other than their local one.
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