CRANSTON, R.I. — It appears that Bill White, CEO of the $310 million Coastway Credit Union, did not exaggerate when he cited a need to increase the CUs ability to make business loans as a reason to favor conversion to a mutual bank in a press release about the potential charter change.
According to the CU's filing with NCUA, Coastway is right up against the statutory cap on member business lending of 12.25% of its total assets. According to Coastways documents, the CU had booked $37.6 million in member business loans as of the end of March 2008 or about 12.13% of its $310 million in total assets.
“As a Rhode Island-chartered, member-owned mutual savings bank, the board of directors believes that growth will enable Coastway to increase its lending capacity to businesses, as well as to individual members,” White said in a release about the charter change.