As Prepared for Delivery on March 18, 2021
Thank you, Keith and Anthony for the briefing and the work you and your team have done on the program for the past ten years. I’m sure this is welcome news for many credit unions.
I realize that when the Corporate System Resolution Program was developed, many did not believe a distribution would materialize. At the time, credit unions had written off their investments and initial projections predicted no recoveries for holders of depleted member capital at the affected corporates.
It is my understanding that although not formal, the pledge made to credit unions at the time was, ”When we get to the end of this program, if there is money left over, it will be returned to you.”
I fully appreciate the difficulties faced by the entire credit union system during the Great Recession. The Herculean efforts and difficult decisions made to ensure the safety and soundness of credit unions are undeniable. I’m grateful to be here now.
Thankfully, since the establishment of the Corporate System Resolution Program and the NGN program, recoveries have exceeded expectations and NCUA was able to return funds to membership-capital account holders of the Southwest AME last year. Today we expect to distribute funds to Me membership-capital account holders of the U.S. Central, Members United, and Southwest AMEs in 2021.
We know how many corporate AMEs this impacts. Can you tell us how many credit unions hold claim certificates overall and how many can expect a distribution? Approximately 2000?
That is a substantial number of credit unions. As I understand it, in the next week, the membership- capital account holders of U.S. Central, Members United, and Southwest AMEs will be notified with the manner, date and amount of the distribution they can expect in 2021.
- How and when will this be communicated?
- Once notified, will the credit unions be able to book the amount of their distribution?
- What assurances can you provide that the full value of their respective AMES will be fully distributed to the credit unions?
- Can you describe your plans for regular communication to credit unions regarding the remaining legacy assets?
- For credit unions seeking more information, what webpage link do you suggest they go to first?
- As we enter the final phase of the program, can you give us an overview of what your plans are to wind down the program?
I’d like to add one more comment. While today’s presentation is indeed good news, we have an opportunity to do something more important — learn from it. We owe it to the credit union movement to examine what was done well and what could have been done better. To those who say this could never happen again, I say, “history may not always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” We must be ready.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I have no further comments.