Wednesday, October 1, 2008

What Credit Crunch?

There have been a few members asking if the Credit Union has money available for loan requests. The answer is YES! These type of inquiries are no doubt due to the media attention on "tight credit markets" in financial institutions. We are not part of the "tight credit market" crowd because our money for lending comes from our membership in the form of deposits. Remember that we are a financial cooperative. We don't borrow money from other institutions to lend money to members.

We continue to provide low cost loans to our members. In fact, our loan balance growth is greater than 11% from last year at this time. Our loan delinquency remains extremely low.

Please do not confuse the availability of internal 1st mortgage money with a "credit crunch". For safety and soundness reasons, the Credit Union's ratio of long term real estate loans to total assets is limited to a 20% cap. When this 20% cap is reached we then offer mortgage loans through our mortgage partner, CU Members Mortgage.

North Alabama Educators Credit Union is open for business. We are actually seeing an increase in deposits as current and new members seek the safety that credit unions provide. Members and potential members are encouraged to view our available loan and share rates which are always posted on our web site under the "RATES" tab.

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