With all the recent negative events in the news, such as the stock market falling and financial institutions collapsing, it brings to mind the story of the acorn dropping on chicken little's head. While many in the news media are proclaiming that the sky is falling, one needs to know the facts before reaching the same conclusion. The US Council of Economic Advisers revealed yesterday that 27 states are in recession, and 14 are near recession. 9 states, including New Mexico, are experiencing an expansion. Now that doesn't mean that at some point we won't experience a slowdown, but when the neighboring states of Texas and Colorado are also experiencing growth, then that is a pretty good sign. The nations big media markets in the Northeast and on the West Coast are reporting what they are seeing in their markets, a major slowdown.
The financial crisis started when all the sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages started experiencing high rates of default. The argument can be made that these loans should have never been done in the first place. OFCU doesn't participate in either sub-prime or adjustable rate mortgages. Our delinquency rate on mortgages, including home equity's is 0%(zero). Most credit unions did not write bad loans out of greed. Credit unions put their members first, and that is why the credit union industry has been largely untouched by this credit crisis. OFCU has not changed its lending policy, and is still looking to lend money to the local communities it serves. OFCU is doing very well, and will continue to practice conservative management principles as it has done for the last 55 years.
If you belong to Otero Federal Credit Union, you can sleep well at night.
Greg
P.S.- OFCU's statement of financial condition is available for viewing in each of their locations.
No comments:
Post a Comment