Credit unions pay for risky behavior by a few
Under Business > Stocks & economy on msnbc.com.
…every credit union in the country finds itself paying to clean up a multibillion-dollar mess created by a handful of failed “corporate” credit unions, which invested heavily in now-toxic mortgage-backed securities peddled by Wall Street during the housing boom. The losses were allowed to continue as federal credit-union regulators paid too little attention, according to the regulators’ own inspector general.
The wreckage is likely to restrict the ability of credit union borrowers to get loans to consolidate debts, to fix up their homes or to buy cars, boats and RVs. The number of credit unions is expected to continue to fall sharply, as it takes a decade for the credit unions to pay for a brief binge by just a few credit unions.
…
The effect on credit unions is clear. Through the first three quarters, credit unions made about $3 billion in profits. Before the assessments, that would have been $4.1 billion. About 640 credit unions that would have been profitable posted losses after taking the assessments into account, according to an analysis of credit union financial reports by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.
As a life-long Credit Union member, this pisses me off to no end.
