Credit union unable to pay dividend

WEXFORD Credit Union is unable to pay a dividend to its members this year because it has been forced to write down a €3m investment in Anglo Irish Bank.

According to a statement released at its AGM, the credit union owns subordinated Anglo bonds worth €2.99m. Unlike senior bondholders, subordinated bondholders have been forced to share some of the pain of Anglo’s collapse and the credit union was informed in October that it was only being offered 20c per euro — meaning that it has had to make a €2.4m provision for this investment loss in its accounts this year.

The credit union has had to write off a further €2.2m in bad debts, up 98% on last year’s figure of €1.1m, in what manager Ultan Ryan called a “very challenging year”.