Another credit union gets S&P rating

S&P gave the credit union a BB rating on its long-term counter-party credit rating and a B rating on its short-term counter-party credit rating, both with a stable outlook.

"The stable outlook factors in our expectation that FCU will soon reduce its property-development-type lending exposures, and that its financial profile will improve in the current fiscal year as a result of increased earnings stemming from interest-margin improvement and lower loan provisioning," said S&P analyst Peter Sikora.

First Credit Union's "business position has underpinned its ability to generate good interest margins to contend with a recent increase in delinquent loans, and to contend with recent liquidity- and funding-based credit-market pressures," he said.

The BB rating will let the firm sneak into the government's extension to the retail guarantee, which was unanimously passed in Parliament yesterday and has tougher requirements than the initial guarantee set up by the Labour-led government last year.