A struggling San Francisco credit union on the brink of collapse and appealing for $50,000 in capital donations from its California peers added $10,000 to its coffers this week.
It also picked up support from a fellow Californian, Barry Jolette, a former CUNA chairman and head of the World Council of Credit Unions.
The latest contributions directed toward the $6.6 million Mission SF FCU, a community development CU, would increase its donation total to $30,000, aiding the campaign begun last month to stave off a potential NCUA merger or liquidation, said Salvador Duran, its beleaguered president/CEO.
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The long range goal as demanded by regulators is for $300,000 in capital but the $50,000 would assist "while the clock is ticking," said Duran, who again defended his CU's lending and management practices following criticism by a Los Angeles CEO, Charles Bruen of First Entertainment.
"Our credit union has a long and proud record of serving this struggling community and the loans he questions are just three which turned sour causing us all the problems and these were unforeseen," Duran said, citing in particular a $150,000 property foreclosure to a borrower who previously had a good record.
Among the $10,000 contributions received over the last week is a $5,000 check from the $592 million San Mateo CU of Redwood City, whose president/CEO is Jolette.
"I think I probably have a different philosophy about aiding small credit unions than Chuck and one factor is that we happen to have worked with this credit union for years so we know something about its history," Jolette said, adding he suspects "Chuck Bruen is not familiar with this credit union but we are."
Thus, it was natural for his Bay Area CU to respond positively to the request, he said. Patelco of San Francisco in two installments has given out $11,000 for capital assistance.
Duran said he received a handful of smaller donations from various other CUs, mostly in northern California.
Also supporting the campaign is New York-based Bethex FCU which appealed to CDCUs on the East Coast to help out.
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