The media continue to report bad news from the financial services industry:
- Huge losses on real estate investments at some of the nation’s biggest banks.
- Large mortgage lenders, such as Countrywide and IndyMac, being sold at fire-sale prices or being taken over by their regulators.
- Increasing worries about the health of mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Where can one turn in times like these?The answer remains the same as always: Chevron Federal Credit Union! Why?
- We’re not glamorous. We’re not trendy. We are a member-owned, not-for-profit financial institution that always has our members’ best interests in mind.
- We strive to provide you with consistently good value – with great rates and personal service.
- We don’t follow the crowd – or in this case, other financial institutions – who loaned money to people without concern about whether they could actually afford to repay the loans.
What does this all mean for the Credit Union? It means that, as many other financial institutions have faltered, we have never been stronger. In the first six months of 2008, the Credit Union
- generated net earnings of $46 million,
- suffered NO losses on any real estate loans,
- and only a fraction of our real estate loans are only one payment past due.
This last point is a useful indicator of potential future loss trends. The difference between mortgage delinquency rates at the Credit Union and the rest of the industry is dramatic:
Industry delinquency rate reported by Mortgage Bankers Association as of 1Q08.
CFCU delinquency rate as of June 30, 2008.
For over 70 years, Chevron Federal Credit Union has been one of the safest places to keep your money, and will continue to be so in the future.
Deposits at CFCU are federally insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. For more information, visit the Share Insurance Fund website at www.ncua.gov/ShareInsurance/Index.htm.
This article was originally posted in the "What's New" section on our website home page in September 2008, and will be published in CFCU's November 2008 edition of the e-Connection newsletter.