With $39 million in assets and twenty thousand members, St. Francis Xavier is one of the largest credit unions in the country but for the past few weeks it's been beset by problems. The major dispute is between general manager Vicente Canul and the board of directors headed by school administrator Luciola West.
Since September, Canul has accused the board of misappropriation; then with the help of a group called the supervisory committee, he removed the board; and then locked them out of the credit union office in Corozal Town.
And while Canul, who has worked at the union for all its 26 years, has acted willfully, the Registrar of Credit Unions, Central Bank Governor Sydney Campbell has written to Canul and the supervisory committee telling them that they cannot remove the board, and its authority stands.
But, the day after that ruling came down, those board members were still locked out of the credit union's office. But that position has changed, on Wednesday of last week, President of the board Luciola West was allowed into the credit union. But only because the union faced a liquidity crisis; it had run out of operating funds, because no checks could be drawn without west's signature, as she must countersign each check. So while the standoff relented briefly, that was just a respite from hostilities, and the battle for control of the north's largest credit union continues.
Tomorrow will be a showdown of sorts as Canul, the supervisory committee, President West and members of her board of directors have been summoned to the central bank to meet with Governor Sydney Campbell who, as we said, is also the Registrar of Credit unions. Campbell is expected to act to quell the dispute - which has generated the kind of instability that isn't good for the public reputation of any banking institution.
