The LGFCU/CIVIC Saga Revisited: Trigger Men?

 Consequences Or Truth? The Fireside Chaps!

   

One of the topics in the unanimously-approved, member resolution from the 2022 SECU Annual Meeting was concern over a proposed merger with LGFCU. Local Government FCU and SECU had partnered cooperatively for over 40 years to bring credit union services to municipal and county employees in North Carolina. LGFCU had grown to $4+ billion in assets with over 400,000 members. 

In the subsequent SECU Board "Fireside Chats", then current Board Chair Chris Ayers and soon-to-depart CEO Jim Hayes "pooh-pooh'ed" the idea of a merger proposal, fully supported by the soon-to-depart LGFCU CEO Dwayne Naylor.  

Written documentation from the universally-respected, former LGFCU CEO, Maurice Smith indicated otherwise [link]. 18 months later in 2025, Mr. Naylor led LGFCU/CIVIC to the edge and over to "Independence Day"!.

This blog suffers frequently from the affliction: "trollitis-extremis". One of those trolls does have a strong skill in balance sheet analysis, unfortunately unburdened by any social, moral, or ethical constraints. Here's his latest:

✅ "PREDICTION FROM LA (7/31/26):" ["LA" supposedly means SECU "Loan Administration"] 

"The NCUA will announce an assisted (forced) merger of CIVIC by the end of the year. Only question is whether it will be with us or not." 

"Assets are down 16% YOY while FTE is up 13%! They clearly vastly underestimated the cost of back-office to support their new digital model. " 

"Their 2Q loss widened to $25 million based on a larger than normal loan loss provision. NW Ratio dropped from 6.68% to 5.86%, below adequately capitalized."

"Surely the NCUA has been all over them and has already required a capital plan, but I wonder if they are modeling this. CIVIC cannot recover from this from normal operations." 

"Deposits continue to drop more than loans, and they had to increase borrowing to fund assets. That interest expense offset the lower dividend expense from shrinking deposits. The $75 million in investments can't be sold for liquidity because they have $9 million in unrealized losses would be a capital hit if they did. "

"Their reserve for loss is $48 million, or 1.7% of loans. That's the good news. That bad news is their annual loss rate is 2.50%. Said differently, they are on pace for $71 million in net charge offs. And, while they are taking losses, they still have $12 million in 90–180-day DQ, and $10 million in 180 day+ delinquency on consumer unsecured products."

"Their loan portfolio is horrible and highly toxic, which is why I predict an assisted merger. The NCUA will need to back stop losses to get any CU to take them." 

  "Only question left: Will it be us?"  

* YOY: year-over-year, FTE: full time employees, NW: net worth. 

  Wonder who "hijacked" this credit union?