Despite ongoing federal court proceedings addressing its actions, the NCUA has moved forward with the liquidation of the $780,000 Kappa Alpha Psi Federal Credit Union.

“Whenever we liquidate a credit union, we are mindful of the responsibility to return funds to members in an expeditious manner,” wrote John McKechnie, NCUA director of public and congressional Affairs, in an e-mail sent after the liquidation. “In this case, as with other liquidations, we were prepared to do that either by transferring the shares to another credit union or paying them directly to the members. Kappa was unwilling to support a share transfer to another institution, and accordingly, NCUA provided the funds directly to the members,” he added.

The agency sent out the checks before the credit union was able to submit its final briefs in the dispute and before Judge Emmet Sullivan made a final ruling. The agency’s priority, McKechnie said, was protecting the members’ money and their assets. “NCUA wanted to make certain that the members received their funds as soon as possible.” McKechnie reiterated. “The liquidation was done in the interest of protecting the members and their assets.”

McKechnie said the agency sent checks totaling $700,047 from 1,472 accounts but that the agency held back two accounts with $44,975 because they were pledged on loans at the CU.

The agency’s move capped a week of legal filings and counter filings as the two sides battled over whether the agency had been right to have issued an order of liquidation against the CU on Aug. 3. The credit union charged in its complaint against the agency that NCUA acted “with total and reckless disregard for the truth” in the liquidation. It also maintained, contrary to the agency’s assertions in the liquidation order, that it had moved its net worth ratio to 3.67% from having been “minimally capitalized.”

Further, KAPFCU argued that the agency surprised the CU’s leadership with the move and that it acted precipitously to liquidate the CU.

But the NCUA countered in its filing that the credit union could not have been surprised by the liquidation because it had been struggling since 2007.

According to the NCUA’s brief and exhibits, the agency sent KAPFCU three nonpublished letters of understanding and agreement since April 2008 before it finally issued its Aug. 3 liquidation order.

In addition, the exhibits showed the agency published one LUA with the CU and sent three letters from its regional director and one preliminary warning letter, all about ongoing problems that KAPFCU never appeared to overcome.

The agency’s April 2007 LUA listed recordkeeping lending practices and revised business plan as sources for concern. “Loan documentation is inadequate,” the agency wrote. “Notes are missing, are not signed, or do not list the collateral. Titles are not obtained which show the credit union as lienholder.”

In response the credit union agreed that it would develop a record keeping process, properly reconcile its statements with the banks and Southwest Corporate where it had accounts, revise its loan policy, obtain training about how to properly evaluate and underwrite a loan, cease granting unsecured loans in excess of $2500.00 and submit a revised business plan.

A second LUA in late August 2008 included the same concerns and carried similar expectations from the CU and carried this paragraph:

“In consideration of Kappa Alpha Psi Federal Credit Union entering into this modified agreement, the undersigned regional director hereby agrees to refrain from recommending any formal administrative action in connection with the specific conditions addressed in this agreement as long as the credit union and its officials make a sustained, effective and good faith effort to comply with all the terms of this agreement, including the required time frames.”

But a Jan. 16 letter from Keith Morton, NCUA’s region IV director, carried this sentence in boldface type: “Your credit union is operating in an unsafe and unsound manner for which substantial, immediate, corrective action must be taken.” The letter then outlined the problems NCUA’s examiners found on an examination of the credit union on Sept. 30, 2008. These included recordkeeping, reconciliation of bank accounts, an out of balance general ledger and lack of training on safe and sound loan underwriting.

The agency’s filing also attacked the credit union’s assertion that it had improved its net worth ratio. The NCUA included an affidavit with its brief from C.W. Phariss, one of its supervisory examiners.

“The credit union’s actual net worth at the time of the filing was actually 1.09%,” Phariss testified in the affidavit. “The credit union’s net worth calculation for June 2010 was inflated by the KAPFCU board’s decision not to appropriately recognize a significant liability of $20,238 for a data processing expense. Due to their decision to disregard common accounting practice and NCUA guidance on accounting for small credit unions by reversing a previously recognized liability, a Call Report correction was required before NCUA could validate the accuracy of the 5300. Contrary to the plaintiffs’ statements, principal examiner Ron Blosch did not validate the June 30, 2010 filing made by KAPFCU officials because he knew the numbers were inaccurate.”

As of press time, the case remains unresolved. Lawyers for the NCUA and KAPFCU have asked Judge Sullivan to reschedule deadlines for their briefs and to postpone when he will hear arguments in their case.

In their joint request, lawyers asked the court to postpone the date by which KAPFCU would have to provide arguments as to why it has the authority to block the credit union’s liquidation and what standard of review the court should use from noon Aug. 16 to noon Aug. 23. The parties asked that the court schedule a hearing on the case between Sept. 15 and 30.

“Significant events have transpired since the Aug. 11 order prompting the parties to seek leave from the court to alter the deadlines,” the lawyers wrote in their joint motion. The motion did not mention that the agency has since moved forward with the liquidation.

The court has ordered all briefs remaining in the case to be filed by Sept. 30 and will hear arguments on the case on Oct. 15.

Comparing the NCUA’s actions to the children’s story Alice in Wonderland, the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions hopes backers of Kappa Alpha Psi FCU persist in their case against the agency.

“We hope that they do decide to have their day in court, and that the judge has the opportunity to offer his view on the procedure,” the National Federation said. “Frankly, for the federation and others in the credit union movement, the logic of liquidation proceedings is puzzling at best. When an appeal can only be heard and decided after the liquidation is underway, it brings to mind Alice in Wonderland: ‘Let the jury consider their verdict, the King said, for about the twentieth time that day. ‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first–verdict afterward.’”

The NCUA issued an order of liquidation against the small community development credit union on Aug. 3 and the credit union took the agency to federal court.

The National Federation noted the case raised a number of questions, including why the NCUA did not pursue a purchase and assumption agreement with the CU, which would have allowed the 1,400 members of this credit union continue to receive service and whether the NCUA’s restatement of the credit union’s financial statements was irrefutably correct.

“Was there truly ‘no prospect’ of this tiny, young credit union obtaining or generating the few tens of thousands of dollars it needed to become ‘adequately capitalized’ over the next four years,” the federation asked.

The NCUA may prevail in court, the federation noted, but added that does not mean that the credit union movement will perceive the NCUA’s actions against credit unions as appropriate, unavoidable, and fair. Amid the continuing pain of the corporate credit union crisis, we believe the credit union movement’s perception of the agency matters,” the organization concluded.

A group of college students in the Omaha area isn’t sitting around waiting for academic achievement to improve among the city’s African-American boys.

Members of the historically black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi are working to make the change happen.

In a ceremony designed to make an impression on the students at Kellom Elementary at 24th and Hamilton Streets, the local Alpha Eta chapter formally adopted the school.

The partnership between the fraternity and the school will include all of the school’s students. But Jamal Jackson said in a recent interview that the 30 members of the fraternity plan to specifically to mentor the school’s fifth- and sixth-grade boys.

“Essentially, we want to prepare them to be young men,” said Jackson, 22, who was raised in Bellevue. “They will be aware of the different traps they can fall into. We want to help them build a strong foundation so they’ll make the right choice.”

Williams has five years in banking and 15 years of sales management experience. Prior to joining TD Bank, he served as a Regional Manager at Citizens Bank in Plymouth Meeting, Penn. Williams is a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Notaries (PAN) and the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., and serves on the board of the Willow Grove Football Club.

A resident of Abington, Penn., Williams is active in coaching a variety of youth sports in his community, including football, baseball and basketball. He participates in Junior Achievement, teaching children in grades 3-8, as well as the Tax Preparer program and the Adopt-a-School Mentoring program. Williams is a 1992 graduate of East Stroudsburg University and a 1985 graduate of University City High School in Philadelphia.

TD Bank focuses on delivering legendary customer service by providing seven-day branch banking with extended hours, free Penny Arcade coin-counting machines, hassle-free products, free online banking and bill pay at www.tdbank.com, and treats for kids and dogs. Customers also have access to a network of 2,600 ATMs from Maine to Florida.

TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 15 largest commercial banks in the United States with $160 billion in assets, and provides customers with a full range of financial products and services at more than 1,100 convenient locations from Maine to Florida. Effective April 16, 2010, TD Bank has acquired certain assets of Riverside National Bank of Florida, First Federal Bank of North Florida and AmericanFirst Bank, and currently operates under those trade names. TD Bank, N.A., is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Portland, Maine. For more information, visit www.tdbank.com.

TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Financial Group (TSX, NYSE: TD) of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America and one of the few banks in the world rated Aaa by Moody’s.

]]> http://progressivegreek.com/organizations/kappa-alpha-psi-fraternity/kappa-frater-james-williams-joins-td-bank-as-store-manager-in-audubon-penn/feed/ 0 http://progressivegreek.com/news_events/alumni/kappa-alpha-psi-initiates-prominent-civil-rights-advocates/ http://progressivegreek.com/news_events/alumni/kappa-alpha-psi-initiates-prominent-civil-rights-advocates/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:30:58 +0000 kevin1914 http://progressivegreek.com/?p=4344 Kappa is proud to announce the initiation of Benjamin T. Jealous, President & CEO of the NAACP; and Wade J. Henderson, President & CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.   Brothers Jealous and Henderson were initiated through the Washington, DC Alumni Chapter on July 31^st.

They are considered two of the most significant advocates for the rights of the disenfranchised in this country.

The nation’s first online-only credit union is fighting regulators who say it must close — and blaming them for its financial woes.

On Tuesday a federal court will hear a plea by Kappa Alpha Psi Federal Credit Union to block an Aug. 3 liquidation order by the National Credit Union Administration.

The Texas credit union, chartered in 2004 by the nationwide African-American college fraternity, claims that NCUA actions, including the ongoing corporate bailout assessments, pushed it to the brink of insolvency, wiping out a mere $27,525 of midyear net worth it had accrued as of June 30. The money would have amounted to a 3.67% net worth ratio on $750,000 of assets at midyear. NCUA records, changed in the days after the liquidation order, show the credit union with negative net worth of $22,496.

“I don’t know where it went,” Kenneth Bynum, a Virginia lawyer representing Kappa Alpha Psi Federal Credit Union, told the Credit Union Journal this morning, questioning the NCUA’s sudden adjustment of the net worth.

Representatives of the credit union met with NCUA officials just days before the liquidation order, Bynum said, and the NCUA had not been showing the credit union’s net worth as negative at that time. “That came after the hearing,” he said.

The institution, officially based in Henderson, Texas, but in actuality the nation’s first virtual credit union, also claims that the NCUA refused its request for a technical assistance grant through its Community Development Revolving Loan Fund as well as its request for a $100,000 grant through the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program—either of which would have created enough net worth to put it on track for the 10-year period allotted new credit union charters to become adequately capitalized.

In its court pleadings, Kappa Alpha Psi FCU asserts that its own calculation of 3.67% net worth at midyear would have qualified it as moderately capitalized under NCUA’s minimum capital rules, known as prompt corrective action, and put it well on track to achieving acceptable capitalization with the allotted 10-year period after chartering.

The credit union “fears that before a show cause hearing can be held, (NCUA) will complete what has already been threatened, and that is to hastily liquidate assets, expend money, enter or break contracts and disrupt the ongoing operations of the credit union,” it said in its request for a temporary restraining order.

After a three month search, the Greater Phoenix Black Chamber of Commerce has chosen Jeffrey C. Cleveland as its seventh president and CEO.

Cleveland is active in the Valley community and was the associate director of business development for Northcentral University, which provides doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees for adult learners.

He is a graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Pointand earned the Bronze star, two Meritorious Service Medals, six Army Commendation Medals and the Army Achievement Medal. He has been deployed across Germany and the Middle East and is a veteran of Desert Shield/Storm. He also has served as a local liaison officer for West Point and sat on two federal Congressional Service Academy selection boards.

Cleveland is involved with Phoenix Youth at Risk Foundation, Arizona Guide Right Foundation, Junior Achievement Citizen’s Advisory Team, and Goodwill Industries. He is a member of the Greater Phoenix Urban League, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. and the Grand Boulé Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.

The appointment comes after a three-month search conducted by a committee of chamber members, including Peter Hemingway, chairman of the board and principal for Wood Patel & Associates; Carl Newman, selection committee chair and city of Phoenix assistant aviation director; Leonardo Loo, Phoenix director with Fennemore Craig; Garry Walters, director of consumer affairs for Southwest Gas; and Isauro Gonzalez, multicultural markets manager for US Bank and chairman of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Cleveland succeeds Ron Busby, who left to to lead the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce.

The Gary Inter-Greek Council believes in events that foster closeness among the nine historically black Greek-letter groups under its umbrella.

One of the most popular ways to promote unity is the annual All-Greek Picnic; the latest one was Saturday at Lake Etta County Park in Gary.

“The picnic has been going on for six years at this same location,” said Dharathula “Dolly” Harris, a Sigma Gamma Rho sorority member. “It was started by what is called the ‘Divine 9,’ which comprises nine organizations.”

Those are Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho sororities and Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma and Iota Phi Theta fraternities. At least two members of each served on the planning committee.

“This (picnic) is the result of the sororities and fraternities coming together for a common goal — fun, fellowship and togetherness — and to enjoy the great food,” Keisha White of Gary said.

Harris was chairwoman of this year’s picnic committee.

“This event was started as a way of thanking our members and their families and friends for their support of our programs in the surrounding areas — and just a way of having fun,” she said.

“I come to the picnic for many reasons, and one of the biggest is for the food,” Mary Walter of Gary said as she filled her plate with barbecue ribs, chicken and watermelon. “This is a great way to begin the afternoon — good food with good friends and a lot of activity afterward. I’m looking to dance; I’m ready.”

During the step and stroll competition, contestants used a five-minute time frame to entertain with steps, chants and song — sometimes in unison.

Before and after the games, disc jockey Shawn Nevins of Gary played dance tunes as well as easy listening music.

“It’s great to see everyone get up and dance, the older ones as well as the younger ones,” he said.

There was a clown and games for the children, as well as a playground area.

“This is wonderful for the whole family,” Ida Gillis of Highland said. “We have 25 to 30 of our members here today.”

Gillis is a Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority member. Her chapter, one of two AKAs in Gary, is an offshoot of the first black sorority, incorporated in 1908.

Fellow member Chelsie Fayson of Hobart served on this year’s planning committee.

“This is a great celebration — a chance to network, socialize, meet new friends and discuss some of our projects,” she said.

Those projects include fundraisers for scholarships and other community programs, Fayson said.

The All-Greek Picnic attendance grows each year, organizers said.

More than 350 people attended last year and at mid-day Saturday it looked as if that number would be matched, if not exceeded.

Harris added that the collaborative efforts of all the organizations benefit many people in the area.

“This shows we can all work together and achieve great things as a unified body,” she said. “All nine sororities and fraternities are service organizations that believe in scholarships as well as other projects, with the focus on service to our communities.”

Saying that it is “minimally capitalized and there are no reasonable prospects for the credit union to achieve adequate capitalization,” the NCUA today announced it was liquidating Kappa Alpha Psi FCU.

The Addison, Texas-based credit union, which had $779,854 in assets as of March 31, saw its loan income decline by 49.1% in the first quarter of 2010, the most recent data available. In the fourth quarter of last year the income fell 65%.

Its net worth ratio was 1.95% as of March 31 and 0.58% as of last Dec. 31.

As of March 31, its delinquent loan ratio was 22.42%, up from 11.77% as of last December 31.

Its return on average assets was -0.65% on March 31, compared with -0.61% as of December 31.
The credit union signed a letter of understanding with the NCUA last year and agreed to improve what the agency characterized as poor recordkeeping and unsafe loan practices.

Kappa Alpha Psi FCU was a virtual credit union with no full-time employees and was a low income credit union. It was founded in 2004 and had 1,341 members.

As Commercial Appeal is reports, Wright died of a gun shot wound that may have been self-inflicted according to earlier reports.