SFXCU Board Responds to Central Bank

Saint Francis Xavier Credit Union in Corozal, the nation’s second-largest credit union, is now being run by an administrator, Martin Marshalleck. Marshalleck was appointed by the Central Bank Governor and Registrar of Credit Unions, Kareem Michael, who made the announcement on Friday evening. Michael cited what was described as “critical deficiencies” in how the credit union was being run. With the new administrator, the board of directors and the credit union’s general manager, Rafael Dominguez, have been benched. Michael spoke about why an administrator had to be appointed.

Since the announcement, the credit union’s board has shared a letter, which they sent to Michael on March 10. In response, the board says that they’ve always tried to comply with the registrar, but that Michael (quote) “has continued to impose unreasonable deadlines—apparently to ensure failure as a basis to now claim non-compliance as the pretext for imposing fines and other drastic measures.” (Unquote) They add that in their view, this is (quote) “consistent with the particular insult, suggesting the lack of capacity of the elected members to manage the affairs of the credit union.” End quote. The board has also asked Michael to reconsider any proposed action and allow the credit union to govern its affairs without undue further disruption. In a separate statement, the board says that while it intends to follow Michael’s directives, it says (quote) “…there is in fact no justifiable reasons for his actions against the removal and suspension of duties of the Board, committees and employees. We, therefore, indulge the Registrar to reconsider his wrongful approach taken against the Board and Committees simply because of administrative corrective matters” (End quote)