Gary Furtado, president/CEO of Navigant Credit Union, was the recipient of the 2009 President’s Award from Special Olympics Rhode Island at the organization’s 25^th Annual Awards Banquet held on Thursday, October 29, 2009 at the West Valley Inn in West Warwick. The award was created to honor an individual whose belief in the capabilities of Special Olympics Rhode Island athletes has resulted in volunteer efforts above and beyond the call. In presenting the award to Gary Furtado, the Special Olympics of Rhode Island indicated that he truly exemplifies the true spirit of Special Olympics – skill, courage, sharing, and joy. The award represents his significant impact on Special Olympics Rhode Island, both professionally and personally.

 

Furtado, who has served on the Association’s Social Responsibility Committee for many years, has insured that Navigant Credit Union continues to participate in the Association’s fundraising activities as well as volunteer at the State Summer Games and Credit Union Charity Golf Tournament. In 2009, the credit union donated more than $5,500 to Special Olympics Rhode Island through the Association’s fundraising activities.

 

Furtado serves as the chair of the capital campaign to secure funding for the new Special Olympics Rhode Island headquarters. He has provided the Navigant boardroom for the monthly meetings and hosted the initial perspective donor cultivation meeting. Through Navigant Credit Union, he has also led by example in making a significant contribution to the capital campaign. His demonstrated leadership ability, in concert with the respect he commands in the business community, has proven to be a tremendous asset in the goal to raise $4 million dollars to construct the new headquarters.

 

 

Columbus Credit Union celebrated the opening of its new Riverside Branch with a private ribbon cutting and reception on Thursday, October 29, 2009. More than 100 invited guests from the credit union community; Columbus Credit Union Board of Directors and staff; members of the Board of Directors from the East Bay Chamber of Commerce, East Providence Chamber of Commerce, and the Credit Union Association of Rhode Island, enjoyed a look inside the credit union’s first branch located at 3 Crescent View Avenue which originally housed the former East Providence Credit Union in the 1970s. “This is a special day for me,” said Cidalia Rocha, CEO. “I started my career in banking at the age of 16 as a teller in this very building, when it was East Providence Credit Union.”

 

The full service branch is now open for business and features drive-up windows, 24-hour ATM access, a children’s playroom, and a comfortable lobby. The branch will be managed by Natalia Lima of Riverside and her assistant manager Marion Sousa-Caisse of Bristol. A public grand opening will be held on Saturday, November 7, from 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. The event will feature an appearance by LiteRock 105’s Heather Gersten, co-host of Jones and Heather in the Morning, with contests and giveaways from the radio station. ETM Green of Cranston will be on location with their e-waste recycling truck, taking most electronic waste items for free. Throughout that day and the month of November, Columbus Credit Union will be running promotional home equity and CD rates, special new member offers, and raffles for gift certificates to local businesses. For more details, visit www.columbuscu.org.

 

 

Passage by the House and Senate of the CARD Act Technical Corrections Act is raising some questions by credit unions on what steps to "uncomply" with the former terms of the 21-day mailing provision.  President Obama is expected to sign that bill, H.R. 3606, at any time and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) has urged him to act quickly.

 

As a "technical correction" to the May 2009 law--known now mostly as the Credit CARD Act--to make clear that a 21-day late notice mailing requirement only applies to credit card accounts, "it's like the requirement never existed for the rest of open-end loans," explained Mike McLain, CUNA's senior compliance counsel and assistant general counsel. "The Federal Reserve Board doesn't have to amend its interim regulation because there's no longer a statutory basis for the 21-day mailing requirement as it applies to open-end loans other than credit cards."

 

Credit unions, however, spent the summer struggling to comply with the requirement to provide at least 21 days after mailing the periodic statement for any open-end loan before assessing late payments fees or imposing other penalties.  Numerous compliance problems were identified affecting consolidated periodic statements, bi-weekly payment plans, existing due dates, and more. "We know that credit unions expended a lot of time and resources to come up with a variety of ways to comply with this burdensome requirement, and now are asking what should they do next," said McLain.

 

Some credit unions simply followed a temporary solution permitted by the Fed in its interim rule to put a special notice on their periodic statements: Your Payment will not be considered as late for any purpose if it is made within 21 days of the date your statement is mailed or delivered, regardless of the due date that is reflected on the statement.  "These credit unions can just stop putting this special notice on their periodic statements," McLain said.

 

Other credit unions decided to comply by listing several upcoming due dates on the current periodic statement to make sure that the member had plenty of notice.  They also can just discontinue printing outward due dates on their periodic statements, noted McLain.

 

Once it was clear in July that the Fed would not resolve credit unions' problems with the 21-day mailing requirement by a regulatory interpretation, CUNA established as a high legislative priority to amend the CARD Act to resolve this problem.  However, since no one could predict in August if and when a technical corrections bill would pass, many credit unions decided to make more comprehensive changes to their open-end lending terms and practices.

 

"Credit unions that took actions such as changing due dates to the end of the month or altering bi-weekly payment plans will have to make their own business decisions on whether they want to revert to what they did prior to August 20," said McLain.  "As the Fed made clear this summer, changing a loan's payment due date is not an action that requires compliance with Regulation Z's change-in-terms rules."

 

However, McLain emphasized that there are certain situations where the 21-day notice will continue – beyond of course credit card programs, which are definitely subject to the 21-day notice.

 

"Some credit unions apparently provide a grace period for repayment before charging any finance charge on certain open-end loans they offer.  If there is a grace period on any type of open-end loan, the credit union must give the member 21 days to take advantage of the grace period," McLain emphasized.  "Congress was unwilling to change this aspect of the 21-day rule."

 

Anytime a lender decides to eliminate a grace period, a change-in-terms notice is required.  If the loan is a credit card, the change-in-terms notice must be provided 45 days in advance (a rule that became effective August 20).  If the loan is any other type of open-end loan, the change-in-terms notice must be given 15 days in advance – but starting July 1, 2010, all open-end loans will require a 45-day advance notice similar to the new credit card rule.

 

"Credit unions are also asking about potential liability between May 22 – the date the CARD Act became law -- and today if there were any issues about their compliance efforts with the now-repealed 21-day notice requirement," said McLain. "There isn't any potential liability, because the technical correction made clear that the 21-day notice provision in the CARD Act was always intended to only apply to credit card accounts."

 

 

Credit union loan balances rose a less-than-expected 0.09% in September, down from last year's pace of 0.53%, according to a Credit Union National Association (CUNA) economist's analysis of CUNA's monthly sample of credit unions.

 

"Consumer credit demand remains weak in the face of serious adverse economic headwinds," Steve Rick, CUNA senior economist, told News Now.  "Job insecurity, stagnant wages, falling employment, and high debt levels will weigh on loan growth into the first half of 2010.

 

"Credit union fixed-rate, first-mortgage loan balances rose 1.1% in September, buoyed by low mortgage interest rates and the first-time homebuyer tax credit," he added.  "For the first nine months of the year, loan balances rose only 1.9%, down from 5.7% for the similar time period last year."

 

Following were unsecured personal loans (0.6%), other mortgages (0.5%), used-auto loans (0.3%), and credit card loans (0.2%).  Home equity loans decreased 0.2%, and adjustable-rate mortgages and new-auto loans declined 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively.

 

Credit union savings balances increased 0.1% in September and 8.6% during the first nine months of 2009.  Individual retirement accounts for the month increased 2.1%, followed by regular shares (0.9%) and money market accounts (0.7%).  One-year certificates and share drafts decreased 1.0% and 4.6%, respectively.

 

"With loan growth so far this year less than half last year's pace, deposit growth is almost double last year's pace," Rick said.  "Credit union savings balances are up 8.6% in the first nine months of 2009, up from 4.8% last year.  Credit union members are parking funds in money market accounts--18.2% growth year-to-date--and regular share accounts--9.8% year-to-date--rather than reinvesting their funds in certificate of deposits at the current low market interest rates.