Credit Union and Cooperative Patronage Refunds - Filene ...

Exhibit B: 2011 Newsletter Article
Announcing Patronage “Rebates
and Rewards” to Members of Dow
Chemical Employees’ Credit Union
($1.4B, Midland, Michigan)
Report from the President/CEO:
Exceeding Expectations in Troubled Times
$5.7 million returned in rebates and rewards
Although the lingering effects remain from one of the worst financial
events in modern memory, Dow Chemical Employees’ Credit Union
(DCECU) posted another banner year in 2010. In this unfortunate
climate where bank and credit union failures exceeded the prior
year’s results, DCECU continued to thrive.
How is it that DCECU was able to take lemons and turn them into
lemonade? What was this recipe for success? It’s really quite simple—
don’t stray from the Core Values you’ve established, and stick to
your Mission. Through conservative, principles- based decisionmaking,
your credit union returned another $5.7 million back in
the form of Loan Interest Rebates, Member Saver Rewards and
other rebates to DCECU member- owners on top of very competitive
loan and deposit rates! (emphasis in original)
DCECU’s leadership has worked tirelessly during these difficult
economic times. Numerous financial forecasts have been reviewed,
contingency plans have been created based on varying interest rate
and economic scenarios, expenses have been carefully controlled, and
investments and capital expenditures have been scrutinized.
Based on the above, one might conclude DCECU has been unaffected
by the recent negative events. While not entirely true,
DCECU is very proud of its foresight in the slight modification of
its loan underwriting criteria when negative signals began to appear.
The results—DCECU has performed superbly versus other similar
financial institutions. And, while loan delinquencies were up slightly
from one year ago, losses have been well- contained and have even
fallen slightly year-over-year.
61