TimeshareLeaks has started to investigate the ongoing relationship between Quorum Federal Credit Union (Purchase, NY) and The Berkley Group, a leading timeshare developer.
Quorum FCU entered the timeshare lending business in late 2009, when it founded a credit union service organization (CUSO) called Vacation Ownership Funding Company (VOFCO). Quorum owns 79 percent of VOFCO.
In its 2009 Annual Report, Quorum wrote about how VOFCO will help to facilitate the relationship between Quorum and the vacation ownership companies and would fuel future growth of the credit union.
In its 2012 Annual Report, Quorum wrote that it "entered into agreements with several vacation ownership companies to provide indirect loans for the purchase of vacation ownership intervals."
TimeshareLeaks noted that between 2010 and 2011 vacation ownership loans grew by 302 percent and between 2011 and 2012 vacation ownership loans almost doubled, growing by 90 percent.
At the end of 2012, the credit union held $103.5 million in vacation ownership loans, which equated to 18 percent of its loan portfolio.
In fact, almost 94 percent of the growth in the credit union's outstanding loan balances between 2009 and 2012 has come from vacation ownership loans.
No wonder Quorum in a 2011 letter opposed a proposed rule by NCUA that would have subjected its CUSO to additional regulatory oversight.
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