Are CU Managers/Board obliged to answer questions?

chasm

With all the talk in the media recently about Newbridge CU, the Independent ran an article today about how to find out if your CU was in trouble and listed "5 key" questions you should ask your local CU Manager and or Board.
I have listed the questions below, but what i would like to know is, are they obliged to tell you if you ask?

As a CU Shareholder (I will not name it here)who has received no dividend for 3 (may be 4?) years and was told by the regulator some time ago when i queried the fact that there had been no AGM for a few years that my CU had been told to hold off on having an AGM, i suppose i had more or less accepted that my CU is probably one of the "at risk" ones, but i would like to know for certain.

These are the questions the indo listed:

? Has the board been told by the Central Bank to postpone the annual general meeting? If it has, it is a sure sign the regulator is unhappy with the way the lending is being run.

? Will a dividend be paid this year, and was one paid last year? Credit unions that are reporting losses are being barred from paying a dividend by regulators.

? Is the loan book shrinking? A declining loan book is an indicator that income is set to fall fast at a credit union.

? Are loan arrears rising? And how many loans are three months, six months or nine months in arrears? Rising arrears are a sign of trouble ahead.

? How much money has been put aside to cover loans that are unlikely to be repaid? The level of what is called provisioning, compared with previous years, should tell you how healthy or otherwise the credit union now is.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/how-to-find-out-if-your-local-lender-is-in-financial-trouble-2990209.html

coylemj

* Has the board been told by the Central Bank to postpone the annual general meeting? If it has, it is a sure sign the regulator is unhappy with the way the lending is being run.

Won't you be able to tell this yourself based on when the AGM actually happens?

* Will a dividend be paid this year, and was one paid last year? Credit unions that are reporting losses are being barred from paying a dividend by regulators.

That's declared at the AGM, go along and find out for yourself.

? Is the loan book shrinking? A declining loan book is an indicator that income is set to fall fast at a credit union.

Read the annual report

* Are loan arrears rising? And how many loans are three months, six months or nine months in arrears? Rising arrears are a sign of trouble ahead.

Read the annual report

* How much money has been put aside to cover loans that are unlikely to be repaid? The level of what is called provisioning, compared with previous years, should tell you how healthy or otherwise the credit union now is.

Read the annual report, compare the bad debt provision with previous years.

chasm

If my CU held an AGM i would ask these questions, the last one was in January 2009 where they issued the report and financial statements for the year ended 2008. I have received no notification of any AGM for 2011 either so unless something is issued soon i assume we will have no AGM this year either.

I am assuming that since there has been no AGM since January 2009 that that is why they have not issued us with an annual report since then either?

coylemj

I sugest you withdraw your money and invest it in Somalian Government Bonds.

FWIW, Somalia is considered to be a territory with no functioning government, please take my above advice with an appropriate pinch of NaCl.

chasm

Lol, Thanks.
Question still stands, Are they obliged to answer the above questions?

Tow

chasm wrote: »

Lol, Thanks.
Question still stands, Are they obliged to answer the above questions?

The answers should be in the annual report they should send you each year.
To be honest if there is no annual report and no AGM you should move your money elsewhere.

The Irish Riddler

Sounds far too dodgy to have your money there. Why take the risk?

Anyone

Unless I have misread, you dont seem to have asked your Credit Union. So, why not ask?

nohow

They are obliged to answer your questions

chasm

Thanks for all the replies, i phoned them earlier and was told they have not been notified as to whether they can hold an AGM so they can not confirm if one will be held, so i asked if that meant there would be no end of year report and was told if there was no AGM it would not be released.

I only have a little more in my savings than i have on my loan so i'm not too stressed about it, i was more interested in whether they were obliged to answer the questions if they do not seem to be obliged to hold an AGM if their books are not in order. Thanks again