GENERAL MANAGER'S Report - Oleg Lebedko

Turmoil in the housing and credit markets negatively affected many U.S. financial institutions.  Some took billions of dollars in writedowns, most reported increase in delinquency and tightening lending standards. Although not immune from some of the challenges in the market, our Ukrainian Federal Credit Union continued to post a solid performance in 2007.

            Our assets reached $131.7 million, loans increased by 5.4%, net membership increased by 595 members.  Our earnings and capital remained stable.  As a result of difficult economic conditions, especially on the West coast, loan delinquencies increased in 2007, but our personnel worked diligently to keep them under control. We successfully went through our first CPA Financial Opinion audit and kept our operations in compliance with all federal and state laws, rules and regulations governing financial institutions.

Membership:
In 2007, our membership grew to 16,705 with 6,885 members in Rochester; 5,414 in Sacramento, CA; 2,330 in Syracuse; 899 in our newest branch in Portland, Oregon; 606 in Albany, NY,  and 571 in Boston, Massachusetts. Our smaller branches in Portland and Albany achieved the highest percentage of membership growth in 2007. We are encouraging members with inactive or dormant accounts to become more active, to open new services and make Ukrainian FCU their primary financial institution; many did, but a number of such accounts had to be closed.

Loan Activity:
Many banks pulled back from lending in 2007. At UFCU, even though we reviewed our underwriting practices to combat rising delinquency rates, our loan portfolio increased by 5.4% to total net loan amount of $109 million. As of December 31, 2007, over 97% of member savings were used to provide our members with loans, which is great evidence of our cooperative philosophy.

During 2007, our employees issued 2,106 loans totaling $30,612,651.

157 New and Refinanced mortgages:     $13,512,042
153 Business Loans:                             $7,536,210
308  New and Used Vehicle Loans:         $4,367,129
1,488 Consumer Loans and VISA:          $5,197,270

Services:
Ukrainian Federal Credit Union is committed to providing financial products and services based on the latest technology.  On December 1, 2007 our credit union converted to a new core computer system. It provides better security of member information, automates manual processes and allows greater flexibility in offering new services to our members. We appreciate our members’ patience during post-conversion weeks, as all staff members become acclamated to the new processes, forms, receipts, statements, as well as working with our new data processing company to resolve outstanding issues. We are continuing to customize and fine-tune the new system based on member feedback, and shortly our members will see more benefits of this move. We are already offering, through our UFCUDirect service -- a secure single sign-on home-banking/electronic bill-payment system that will be enhanced with electronic statements and on-line loan applications. Our voice response system includes more features, and will be available in Ukrainian language within a few months. We listened to members’ requests to be able to receive starter checks and loan bills, and these features are now available. More new features will be coming to improve your experience with our credit union.

            In 2007 we continued our Mitten Club program for youth up to 16 years of age – close to 100 young members signed up during the year and took advantage of our gift deposits and special promotions. Close to $20,000 was also given out as scholarships to our student members.  

            In conclusion, I would like to thank our CEO Tamara Denysenko and members of the Board of Directors for their leadership and direction. I would also like to acknowledge all our hard-working employees for their dedication in providing beneficial services to our members.