WesCorp News
Are You Ready For The Road Ahead? Credit Union Outlook Conference - September 22-25 Wynn, Las Vegas
Uncharted economic territories can present a wealth of opportunities for your credit union. Gain a considerable edge by mastering the latest techniques and get armed with vital knowledge from industry experts with topics such as:
- Outlook for the Economy, Monetary Policy, Real Estate & the Stock Market
- Federal Initiatives & the Regulatory Response to the Housing Crisis
- Predicting Credit Losses & Managing the Provision for Loan Losses
- The A-Z's of Small Balance Commercial Real Estate Loans
- Understanding Credit, Market & Liquidity Risk
- Why Traditional Spread Relationships Have Changed & the Outlook for 2009
- Using Loan Level Mortgage Data to Mitigate Risk and Identify Opportunities
- Structured Securities & The Future of Securitization
- Improving Efficiencies Through Cost Savings and Income Opportunities
- Hedging Unwanted Interest Rate Risk In a Fair Value World
- The Latest Accounting & NCUA Updates
The education will be unparalleled and peer collaboration will bring it all together at the credit union conference you can't afford to miss.
Bourbon Named new Assistant Controller
Please welcome John Bourbon as WesCorp's new Assistant Controller. John brings with him more than 20 years of experience in the securities and derivatives accounting areas, most recently working at IndyMac Bank in Pasadena,
Calif., where he was First Vice President, Assistant Corporate Controller. John's previous experience also includes the FDIC and the Resolution Trust Corporation, as well as with the accounting firms of Arthur Anderson and Kenneth Leventhal. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
InsideRISK Now Available
The financial markets remain highly challenged across the globe. Rising commodity prices, illiquid markets, a retrenchment in the availability of credit and widespread de-leveraging have unsettled all the major debt markets. In the U.S., monetary policy remains on hold while the Fed balances concerns about rising inflationary pressures against deteriorating consumer confidence and the fallout from the housing bubble and subprime debt crisis. We believe that rates will stay around current levels well into 2009; however, eventually rates will go back to more normal levels as soon as the economy starts to show some signs of recovery.
With that backdrop, this issue of InsideRISK is all about looking to the future. In the featured article, Vince Herman, WesCorp’s Director of Hedging Services, takes a look at how you can manage your funding costs in a rising rate environment. In the same vein, Dietmar Huesch, V.P. of Treasury and Funding, re-visits the desirability of laddering investment maturities. A simple and sometimes maligned practice utilized by many credit unions. Cullen Coxe from ALM First looks at the current state of the mortgage markets and provides some valuable insights for managing your portfolio. We round out this edition with the second installments of two series from the last edition. Brad Cunningham takes a look at how market events have impacted modeling assumptions and pricing considerations and Jeremy Calva takes you back to the basics looking at the various types of yield calculations that you might run into. We hope these articles are timely and helpful as we move into the 2009 planning season.
For a free copy of InsideRISK magazine, please e-mail Ken Lyall, Editor.
WesCorp Successfully Tests Business Continuity Systems
Can WesCorp member credit unions have the confidence and trust of uninterrupted service if their corporate suffered a natural disaster?
Yes, they can!
On Friday, August 22, WesCorp successfully conducted a “live” exercise of its business continuity plans from its back-up facility located in Temecula, Calif. The exercise was conducted “live,” where all critical operating systems were run throughout the day from our off-site business continuity center, having been transferred from their normal San Dimas, Calif. location.
“While most other large financial institutions conduct their continuity plans during the weekend, WesCorp prefers to do these strategic exercises during actual business hours in order to gain the full assurances that our plans can support our members’ critical operational needs,” noted Fred Valentine, WesCorp’s Vice President of Operational Integrity. “It’s the unexpected situations that occur during a full-scale “live” exercise that helps us sharpen our skills and continually improve our business plans.”
Critical operating systems that were tested in the exercise included WAVE, Member Center, wire transfers, item processing and investment services, and member-related call center activities. In addition, a large segment of WesCorp’s San Dimas staff also traveled to the back-up site two hours away in order to provide continuity in nearly every area of member support and services.
Explains Valentine, “Everyone realizes that working in Southern California we could have a natural disaster at any time. We need to give our members the confidence that if that ever happened, we could continue to support our commitments to them without interruption and major inconvenience.”
WesCorp has also produced a video news release of WesCorp’s business continuity exercise. To view the three-minute VNR, click here.