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The following are excerpts from an article published in the Inside Front Page of The Sun newspaper on Monday, June 7, 2010 Vol 12 No. 28
'Despite the regional and international financial meltdown, the Roseau Cooperative Credit Union (RCCU) is alive and well.
"The Society is in a sound financial position presently", wrote Linda Gonzalez Peltier, the Chairperson of the RCCU Supervisory Committee in its annual report for 2009. However management, staff, members, and volunteers need to guard against complacency."
At its annual general meeting (held on Tuesday, June 8) the RCCU reported that it "experienced remarkable growth" of $21,252,245 (or 8.17%) in its assets in 2009. The credit union has total assets of $281.2M.
"The growth in the Society's core business, originated loans was $10,570,295 (5.78%) increasing to $193., 702,382 from $183,123,087 in the previous year," said Dexter Ducreay in the Director's report....
Meanwhile, the RCCU continued one of its major original functions--a place where members save their surplus cash. According to the RCCU annual report members of the RCCU saved $186.3M in 2009 but withdrew $173.3M from their savings.
"The Society's liabilities in respect of Members Savings was $139,214,064, an increase of $10,797,211 (8.41%) from $128,416,853 as at December 31, 2008" Ducreay stated. "There were positive signs of growth in the Member Share Capital during the year in review. The value of shares increased to $1,879,350 an increase of $121,450 (6.91%) over 2008...Total number of shares purchased by members increased by 2,429 to 37,587. "
"The challenging economic times coupled with reducing disposable income of members did not negatively impact the Society's engine of growth . The loans portfolio grew by $10,579,295 to $193,703,382 notwithstanding the increased demand for long term loans and reduction in the demand for short term loans."
On the issue of delinquency, Ducreay said the RCCU has also had some level of success by employing various strategies to manage non-performing loans. "The collections effort realized reflows of $2,705,714 during the year under review. As at December 31,2009 the delinquency ratio was 6.54%."
Looking towards the future, Ducreay said: "The RCCU continues to spearhead the process of amalgamation with several smaller credit unions. There was much discussion among the various credit union representatives and significant progress has been made in what can be described as a very involved process."
"We will continue the education process to ensure that members are fully aware of the importance of amalgamation in a highly competitive and fast changing environment."'
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