In the United States, St. Mary’s Bank Credit Union of Manchester, New Hampshire holds the distinction as the first credit union. Assisted by a personal visit from Desjardins, St. Mary’s was founded by French-speaking immigrants to Manchester from Quebec on November 24, 1908. America’s Credit Union Museum now occupies the location of the home from which St. Mary’s Bank Credit Union first operated.

Not many financial institutions live to the ripe old age of centenarian.
Once you’re over the hump of 100, you need to be really careful, if recent history is any indication. Let’s take a moment and recognize those that have passed recently.
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RIP:

WaMu
1889-2008
119 years old

Wachovia
1879-2008
dead at 129

Citibank
1812-
is on the “watch list” at 196 years old.

In order to survive beyond 2008, we need to look at what some of the causes of death in the banking world are. You know, be fiscally financially fit to prolong our life.
Let’s do a bank “autopsy” to see what the cause of death relates to:

The autopsy reports that WaMu was a suicide. They apparently took their own life when they decided to loan over $40 billion in toxic mortgages.

Wachovia was a very healthy organization that died suddenly – after being exposed to toxic waste (from Golden West Financial that was very ill…)

Citibank was still running around just a few months ago, apparently healthy and willing to buy Wachovia – but now there are signs of slowing down. Stock prices dropping……most likely will die of natural causes.

I read a story this week-end that got me a little worried about the health of one credit union. It’s like they have high blood pressure and aren’t willing to take their medication and cut the salt out of their diet. It’s their version of “pay day lending” that has me worried.

Once we hit 100 – we need to be really careful to stay healthy. That’s all I’m sayin……