Credit unions receiving cash support

A NUMBER of credit unions in severe financial difficulty have broken deadlines to file accounts with the Financial Regulator and are receiving cash support from the Irish League of Credit Unions’ €120 million Savings Protection Scheme.

As many as 10 credit unions have failed to hold annual general meetings for 2009 because they have failed to get their accounts signed off by the Financial Regulator. By law all credit unions were required to submit their 2009 annual returns to the Regulator by March 31. The unions involved have not paid dividends to tens of thousands of credit union members.

The reasons for the postponing of an AGM can include issues in relation to the level of reserves retained, bad debt provisions, governance and other financial matters, and in such cases the Financial Regulator seeks “actions” to address the outstanding matters.