Bankers slam merger.The idea of a potential merger between two of Florida's largest credit unions has the Florida Bankers Association livid livid /liv·id/ (liv´id) discolored, as from a contusion or bruise; black and blue. liv·id adj. . "Eastern was the poster child of credit union abuse," said Alex Sanchez
Alex Sanchez is a Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. , president/CEO of the banking group, of Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union. "If they do merge, all the luck in the world to them because that's a bad situation going worse." Sanchez said Eastern Financial's troubles are the result of what happens when large credit unions "go way out of bounds." He emphasized that he does not have a problem with the 90% of credit unions that are "fulfilling their missions." "Regulators need to seriously think about this. These are tax-exempt banks masquerading 1. (networking) masquerading - "NAT" (Linux kernel name). 2. (messaging) masquerading - Hiding the names of internal e-mail client and gateway machines from the outside world by rewriting the "From" address and other headers as the message leaves the as credit unions," Sanchez said. "Look at what happened with Suncoast and GTE GTE General Telephone & Electronics GTE Génie Thermique et Énergie (French) GTE Gas Turbine Engine GTE Global Tropospheric Experiment GTE Geothermal Energy GTE Gas Turbine Efficiency plc (Sweden & USA) ." In March, $5.9 billion Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union and $1.9 billion GTE Federal Credit Union announced their intent to merge. Like many in the industry, both have been grappling with a sharp rise in loan losses. Meanwhile, given the economy, Sanchez posed two questions to the credit union industry: "In this struggling, why should a family of four struggle to pay state and federal taxes of a billion dollar credit union? Why should a small business struggling to meet payroll on Friday pay more in federal and state income taxes than a credit union?" The Florida Credit Union League A credit union league (League) is a United States state-level trade association for credit unions, which are non-profit financial cooperatives. Credit union leagues hold a primary interest in the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). said Eastern Financial's situation is "an anomaly in the credit union movement" and is "not reflective of credit unions as a whole." "What happened at Eastern Financial is not costing taxpayers one penny in terms of bailout or subsidy," wrote Guy Hood, president/CEO of the Florida league, in a response to the FBA FBA Federal Bar Association FBA Functional Behavior Assessment FBA Fibre Box Association (North America) FBA Forms Based Authentication (Microsoft Outlook Web Access) FBA Florida Bicycle Association . "Can that be said about banks caught in similar situations?" Hood pointed out that the credit union industry's loan delinquency rates and charge-off rates are 1.37% and 0.84%, respectively. Commercial banks are 2.93% and 1.28%, respectively, he added. "Credit unions are extremely responsible lenders. The Florida Bankers Association's agenda toward credit unions clearly nullifies any opinion they might offer concerning credit unions," Hood wrote. MICHELLE MICHELLE Mid-Infrared Echelle Spectrograph A. SAMAAD --msamaad@cutimes.com |
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