Though admitting that Nevada banks suffer equally with credit unions from the state's severe recession, the head of the Nevada Bankers Association found last Friday's takeover of troubled Ensign Credit Union of Henderson by a Dallas CU "a real question mark as to whether credit unions should be in the business of making commercial loans."
"One can reasonably argue from the record of several other Nevada credit union failures that there are people in credit unions who lack the experience to make these kinds of loans and there have been problems on indirect, too," charged William Uffelman, president/CEO of the NBA.
A spokesman for the California/Nevada Credit Union League dismissing the remark as traditional CU sniping said it "is not about to comment on what is put out by the Nevada Bankers Association." Media coverage regarding the four recent out-of-state takeovers of CUs over recent months has included banker comments on CUs making ill-fated commercial or real estate loans.
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"I heard about one credit union that fired its CEO after handing over their entire indirect operation to a car dealer and so what do you expect?" asked Uffelman. It was unclear which CU he was referring to.
Maintaining that all Nevada financial institutions "are undergoing the serious effects of this crisis" the NBA CEO counted four large Nevada-linked bank failures in recent months listing the collapse of Community Bank, Colonial Bank of Birmingham, Ala., Irwin Union of Columbus, Ind. and Great Basin of Reno.
"Hopefully in 2010 we can all move past failures," quipped Uffelman.
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