Community development credit unions, often among the smallest credit unions, in the country, are doing everything from canceling celebratory annual meetings to cutting back on health insurance, eliminating contributions to 401K programs and closing branches in order to pay their part of NCUA's NCUSIF assessment.

"This year was our tenth anniversary and so we planned a little bit of a celebration at our annual meeting," explained Bruce Wright, CEO of the $3.6 million Brookland Federal Credit Union in West Columbia, South Carolina. "Well, that went from $5000 in the budget to $1000 for a bare bones annual meeting. We have cut travel, cut benefits, cut everything we could cut and that was before these latest numbers came in," he said, referring to the increased assessment in the wake of the corporate conservetorships.

The credit union would do everything it could to avoid laying off any staff, Wright said.