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What’s Your Credit Union’s Liquidity Strategy

November 22, 2014

edward lis General Banking Services, Business, Consumer, Consumer protection, Credit CARD Act of 2009, Credit Union, credit unions, Finance, Liquidity crisis, Loan, National Credit Union Administration, Outsourcing Leave a comment

Compliance preparations for the National Credit Union Administration’s new emergency liquidity rule must have been completed by March 31 2014.

The liquidity rule sets up three-tiered emergency liquidity requirements for credit unions with less than $50 million in assets, between $50 million and $250 million in assets, and more than $250 million in assets.

Federally insured credit unions (FICUs) with less than $50 million in assets must maintain a basic written emergency liquidity policy but will not be required to take further action. All FICUs with assets of $50 million or more are required to develop contingency funding plans describing how their credit union will address liquidity shortfalls in emergency situations. FICUs with assets of $250 million or more would be required to have access to a backup federal liquidity source for emergency situations.

Why wouldn’t credit union’s with less than $250 million in assets not want to have access to a backup federal liquidity source such as the discount window or CLF for emergency situations?

The final rule does not include the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB) as an acceptable source of emergency liquidity, although eligible credit unions required to meet the federal source provisions would be free to borrow from a FHLB for nonemergency purposes. Without the FHLB, credit unions have two options to ensure a federal liquidity source for emergency situations: Becoming a member of the NCUA’s Central Liquidity Facility (CLF) by subscribing to CLF stock or access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window.

I strongly supports the use of the home loan banks for liquidity.

Why be concerned now about liquidity when most credit unions are still awash with funds resulting from a flight-to-safety fund inflows and loan portfolio outflows due to lack of loan demand?

• Rising rates typically are used to manage economic recoveries. so it is likely rising rates will be accompanied by a return of flight-to-safety funds to the market and a spike in loan demand, putting many credit unions back in the tight liquidity environment of a few years back.

• Many credit unions have rate floors under their variable rate loans. As rates move up, rates on these loans won’t move for a while. But your cost of funds will. The result is a compressed net interest margins or NIM

The objective of a viable liquidity policy and strategy is to provide a framework to minimize the adverse effects of a significant and sustained liquidity crisis. This can result from changing economic or interest rate conditions, deposit outflows, unusually strong loan demand, intense competition, an international crisis, or any other factors that can deplete the liquidity of the credit union.

In the event of a serious and sustained liquidity crisis, various strategies, of which some would be considered preventative and must be implemented prior to the onset of a crisis. Other strategies are reactive and may be implemented immediately. The strategies will differ in terms of the implementation time, costs, risks, financial implications and regulatory consequences.

The first place to look for sources of liquidity is within your own balance sheet. More

Are Checking Accounts a Viable Acquisition, Retention or Growth Strategy?

September 17, 2013

edward lis General branding, channel, Credit Union, customer acquisition, customer service, differentiation, Fee, profitability, revenue growth, Transactional account Leave a comment

The topic of Business Strategy and implications to Member Loyalty, Revenue Growth and Profitability are rather timely as Credit Unions prepare for the Annual Strategic sessions. Specifically related to checking accounts, every Credit Union ought to be asking questions including:

How effective and efficient has the member acquisition program led by checking account product sales been?

How effective is the cross-sale plan that is based on WOWing the checking account customer into additional product sales? How much products have been upsold, on average, to a checking account led acquisition? How much revenue and profit have the checking account led acquisition members generated for the Credit Union?

Perhaps the experience of your Credit Union is an outlier, but the data is overwhelmingly and unequivocally negative. That is, checking accounts are effective only at increasing the count of checking accounts (and perhaps the wallets of certain vendors who continue to sell the value of the checking account). 10 years ago, the checking account may have been the gateway to a broader wallet-share, revenue and profit growth, but circumstances have changed and the checking account is a liability – in all senses of the word – for the vast majority of Credit Unions.

The checking account holy grail myth seems to be inexhaustible. Bankers have been armed with the perceptions of the future based on yesterday’s experience, and buttressed by some self-interested vendors, advisors, and associations who are, frankly, afraid, to ‘tell it like it is’ or worse, who don’t know any better.

Most checking accounts generate little or no revenue and the vast majority generate non-recoverable operating losses, with little or no opportunity for cross-sell into revenue-generating products. Our own prolific writing on the topic includes the following articles that illustrate the dearth of value of the checking account to the member and to the Credit Union:

The ineffectiveness of the checking account is validated yet again by a recent TD Bank / Angus Reid Public Opinion survey that polled more than 3,000 checking account consumers.

Product Ownership

TD Bank’s survey indicates that although a healthy 83% have a savings account in addition to their checking account, less than 50% have a credit card, and less than 20% have a mortgage, loan, LOC or Investments.

A Small Minority of Consumers Own Products that Generate Revenues for Credit Unions’ Product Ownership with Primary Bank, TD Bank Checking Experience Index

In other words, a very small minority of members own revenue-generating products from their Primary Credit Union. These findings are consistent with the findings of a recent Deloitte survey. More

Concentration Risk

August 1, 2013

edward lis General Balance sheet, Board of directors, Concentration risk, Credit Union, Mortgage loan, National Credit Union Administration, Net worth, Risk, Risk management Comments Off on Concentration Risk

CU officials and management have a fiduciary responsibility to identify, measure, monitor, and control concentration risk. Concentration risk must be managed in conjunction with credit, interest rate and liquidity risks; as a negative event in any category may have significant consequences on the other areas, as well as strategic and reputation risks.

Concentration risk has increased in importance during the recent economic recession. Poor risk management of residential and commercial mortgage loan concentrations, in particular, is having an adverse effect on credit unions nationwide; resulting in significant loan losses, earnings deterioration, capital depletion, and increased credit union failures.

The board of directors should establish a policy addressing its philosophy on concentration risk, limits commensurate with net worth levels, and the rationale as to how the limits fit into the credit union’s overall strategic plan. Take a global perspective when developing the policy, including identifying outside forces (such as economic or housing price uncertainty) which will affect the ability to manage concentration risk.

The parameters set by the board should be specific to each portfolio and should include limits on loan types, share types, third party relationship exposure, etc. The risk limits should correlate to the overall growth objectives, financial targets, and net worth plan. The risk limits set forth in the concentration risk policy should be closely linked to those codified in related policies, including, but not limited to, real estate loan, member business loan, loan participation, asset/liability management (ALM), investment and liquidity policies. Any Concentration exceeding 100 percent of net worth must be monitored carefully, and the board of directors should document an adequate rationale for undertaking that level of risk. More

Merger Accounting-SFAS 141-R

July 30, 2013

edward lis General Leave a comment

SFAS 141 was revised in 2008 (SFAS 141-R). The acquisition method will be required for all credit union business combinations for fiscal years (acquirer) beginning after December 15, 2008.

The fair value accounting involves determining the fair values of the:

• Equity acquired;

• Assets acquired, including intangible assets; and

• Liabilities assumed.

Conclusions

a) Your examiner may require a high-level of FV (and the resulting accounting impact) prior to approving a merger.

b) Get our CPA firm involved at the onset.

This blog entry you have just read was written by Edward B. Lis, SVP CFO & Compliance. If you enjoyed this article I encourage you to learn more about Edward by visiting www.edwardlis.com.

Edward B. Lis is a well respected credit union executive known by his peers as being decisive; a visionary; communicative; and energetic. He has led during difficult economic times driving change, achieving objectives, and effectively managing projects moving from a vision and strategy phase to implementation and final execution.

Additional Resources

FDIC Accounting for Business Combinations

Credit Union Mergers (edwardlis.com)
Why You Need a Credit Union Account (money.usnews.com)
NCUA Credit Union Insured Savings -Just The Basics (moneygal2020.wordpress.com)

cu advisory group

What’s Your Credit Union’s Liquidity Strategy

Are Checking Accounts a Viable Acquisition, Retention or Growth Strategy?

Concentration Risk

Merger Accounting-SFAS 141-R

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What’s Your Credit Union’s Liquidity Strategy

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Are Checking Accounts a Viable Acquisition, Retention or Growth Strategy?

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Concentration Risk

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Merger Accounting-SFAS 141-R

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Sites Worth Looking At

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