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.
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The $16 million Bethex Federal Credit Union had already decided to close one of its three branches to help make up for the $58,000 that the initial assessment was going to cost and CEO Joy Cousminer said the CU had not yet figured out how it would make up the new money.
"What's so infuriating and disheartening is that you work so long and so hard, building up the credit union little by little, a little here, a little there, and it can all be wiped out because of the actions of other people," Cousminer said.
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