Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union: Latest News

La declaración de impuestos puede traer una sonrisa este año

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:23:00 -0600

Crisis económica o no, los contribuyentes tienen que cumplir con la obligación de rendirle cuentas al fisco. Pero este año la declaración de impuestos puede traer como sorpresa una sonrisa del IRS, traducida en beneficios económicos para los tributarios.

Resulta que el Servicio de Rentas Internas de Estados Unidos está ofreciendo nuevos créditos y promoviendo antiguos.

Uno de los ya conocidos y que podría beneficiar a millones de personas, es el Crédito Tributario por Ingreso de Trabajo (EITC en inglés).

Es para familias o individuos que trabajan y del mismo el año pasado se beneficiaron cerca de 24 millones de personas, que recibieron un total de 48 mil millones de dólares, con un promedio de dos mil dólares por contribuyente.

Este año el crédito máximo será de 4.824 dólares para una familia con dos o más niños; 2.917 para una familia con un niño y 438 para personas solas. Calificarán quienes hayan trabajado en 2008 y ganado menos de 41.646 y posean Seguro Social.

“En estos tiempos de dificultades financieras, hay quienes podrían ser elegibles para el Crédito por Ingreso del Trabajo o EITC por primera vez, sobre todo si sólo trabajaron una parte de 2008 o lo hicieron a medio tiempo o recibieron salarios por debajo del mínimo obligatorio”, explica Sara L. Eguren, vocera del IRS.

Jonah Gensler, Director de Servicios Para la Familia de la organización Ironbound Community Corporation de Newark, Nueva Jersey, dice que el EITC puede ser retroactivo si el año pasado no fue reclamado:

“Si el IRS puede buscarnos y reclamarnos por impuestos no pagados, nosotros podemos solicitarle al IRS por créditos nuestros que no hemos reclamado”, dice Gensler.

“Hay que hacerlo porque, en caso contrario, el dinero queda en la mesa que no corresponde. Es necesario preguntar a quienes confeccionan nuestros impuestos si calificamos para los diferentes créditos que se ofrecen”.

Gensler recomienda que aunque las personas hayan ganado poco durante 2008, hagan su declaración de impuestos, no sólo porque es un proceso legal obligatorio, sino porque ofrece la posibilidad de acceder a un dinero extra.

También en el caso de los hijos existe la posibilidad de reembolsos. Según César Blanco, que trabaja en Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union, en Manhattan, y es coordinador del programa VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance – Asistencia de voluntarios para la declaración de impuestos) del IRS en la misma institución, los hijos deben ser ciudadanos estadounidenses y menores de 17 años de edad.

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SBA Express Program for Small Business Loans

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:53:00 -0600

The maximum loan amount is $25,000. It can be for a line of credit or term loan. For more information on this program, speak to our Business Loan Officer at the credit union.

Supporting Our Local Businesses: Personal Style Optical

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:59:00 -0600

If your goal is to own a small business, then the LES People’s Federal Credit Union will try to help you reach that goal.

Elando, owner of Personal Style Optical, wanted to pursue engineering when he enrolled in a technical high school here in New York, after moving from the Caribbean. There was no room in the program, however, so he chose optics as a follow up field of study. So, after accruing many years of experience working in the optical field, not to mention his many years of study, Elando decided that it was his time to start his own business.

One of the obstacles Elando faced was getting the expertise, guidance, and encouragement he needed to go ahead with his project, not to mention the actual loan. “People would tell me that it wasn’t possible and I would think, alright, but tell me why, tell me how to improve my business plan”, said Elando.

The LES People’ Federal Credit Union furnished Elando with constructive criticism, business know how, and the start up-loan needed to begin “Personal Style Optical”.

The LES People’s Federal Credit Union helps individuals like Elando turn a business idea into a workable, and successful, reality.

Newsweek Article: A Risk Worth Taking

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:14:00 -0600

Daniel Gross NEWSWEEK

From the magazine issue dated Nov 24, 2008

In recent months, conservative economists and editorialists have tried to pin the blame for the unholy international financial mess on subprime lending and subprime borrowers. If bureaucrats and social activists hadn’t pressured firms to lend to the working poor, the narrative goes, we’d still be partying like it was 2005 and Bear Stearns would be a going concern. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has repeatedly heaped blame on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), the 1977 law aimed at preventing redlining in minority neighborhoods. Fox Business Network anchor Neil Cavuto in September proclaimed that “loaning to minorities and risky folks is a disaster.”

This line of reasoning is absurd on several levels. Many of the biggest subprime lenders weren’t banks, and thus weren’t covered by the CRA. Nobody forced Bear Stearns to borrow $33 for every dollar of assets it had, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn’t coerce highly compensated CEOs into rolling out no-money-down, exploding adjustable-rate mortgages. Banks will lose just as much money lending to really rich white guys like former Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld as they will on loans to poor people of color in the South Bronx.

But the best refutation may be provided by Douglas Bystry, president and CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI (community development financial institution), based in Lake Forest, Calif. Since 2003, this for-profit firm in Orange County—home to busted subprime behemoths like Ameriquest—has made $220 million in mortgages in the Golden State’s subprime killing fields. More than 90 percent of its home loans have gone to first-time buyers, about half of whom are minorities. Out of 770 single-family loans it has made, how many foreclosures have there been? “As far as we know,” says Bystry, “seven.” Last year Clearinghouse reported a $1.4 million pretax profit.

Community-development banks, credit unions and other CDFIs—a mixture of faith-based and secular, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations—constitute what might be called the “ethical subprime lending” industry. Even amid the worst housing crisis since the 1930s, many of these institutions sport healthy payback rates. They haven’t bankrupted their customers or their shareholders. Nor have they rushed to Washington begging for bailouts. Their numbers include tiny startups and veterans like Chicago’s ShoreBank, founded in 1973, which now sports $2.3 billion in assets, 418 employees and branches in Detroit and Cleveland. Cliff Rosenthal, CEO of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, notes that for his organization’s 200 members, which serve predominantly low-income communities, “delinquent loans are about 3.1 percent of assets.” In the second quarter, by contrast, the national delinquency rate on subprime loans was 18.7 percent.

Participants in this “opportunity finance” field, as it is called, aren’t a bunch of squishy social workers. In order to keep their doors open, they have to charge appropriate rates—slightly higher than those on prime, conforming loans—and manage risk properly. They judge their results on financial performance and on the impact they have on the communities they serve. “We have to be profitable, just not profit-maximizing,” says Mark Pinsky, president and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network, an umbrella group for CDFIs that in 2007 collectively lent $2.1 billion, with charge-offs of less than 0.75 percent.

What sets the “good” subprime lenders apart is that they never bought into all the perverse incentives and “innovations” of the late subprime lending system—the fees paid to mortgage brokers, fancy offices and the reliance on securitization. Like a bunch of present-day George Baileys, ethical subprime lenders evaluate applications carefully, don’t pay brokers big fees to rope customers into high-interest loans and mostly hold onto the loans they make rather than reselling them. They focus less on quantity than on quality. Clearinghouse’s borrowers must qualify for the fixed-rate mortgages they take out. “If one of our employees pushed someone into a house they couldn’t afford, they would be fired,” says CEO Bystry.

These lenders put into practice the types of bromides that financial-services companies like to use in their advertising. “We’re in business to improve people’s lives and do asset building,” says Linda Levy, CEO of the Lower East Side Credit Union. The 7,500-member nonprofit, based on still-scruffy Avenue B, doesn’t serve the gentrified part of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, with its precious boutiques and million-dollar lofts. The average balance in its savings accounts is $1,400. The typical member? “A Hispanic woman from either Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic in her late 40s or early 50s, on government assistance, with a bunch of kids,” Levy says. Sure sounds like subprime. But the delinquency rate on its portfolio of mortgage and consumer loans is 2.3 percent, and it’s never had a foreclosure.

Ethical subprime lenders have to look beyond credit scores and algorithms when making lending judgments. Homewise, based in Santa Fe, N.M., which lends to first-time, working-class home buyers, makes credit decisions based in part on whether borrowers have scraped together a 2 percent down payment. “If customers build a savings habit to save that money on a modest income, it says a lot about them and their financial discipline,” says executive director Mike Loftin. Of the 500 loans on Homewise’s books in September, only 0.6 percent were 90 days late. That compares with 2.35 percent of all prime mortgages nationwide.

Since ethical subprime lenders know they’re going to live with the loans they make—rather than simply sell them—they invest in initiatives that will make it more likely the loans will be paid back. Faith Community United Credit Union, which got started in the basement of a Baptist church in Cleveland in 1952 with members saving quarters on Sundays, now has $10 million in assets. In addition to making loans, “we teach people how to manage their finances and accounts,” says CEO Rita Haynes. ShoreBank, as part of its energy-conservation loan program, offers free energy audits and a free Energy Star refrigerator when upgrades are completed. The theory: reducing energy bills makes it more likely people will stay current with their mortgages. Today, only $4.83 million of ShoreBank’s $1.5 billion loans are in foreclosure, or just 0.32 percent.

Ethical subprime lenders are now expanding beyond mortgages. Ed Jacob, manager and CEO of Chicago’s North Side Community Federal Credit Union, was alarmed to learn that many of his 2,700 members, most of whom have less than $100 in their accounts, were relying on the “second-tier financial-service marketplace”: check-cashing outlets and payday lenders, which charge exorbitant fees. So he rolled out a Payday Alternative Loan (PAL), $500 for six months at 16.5 percent. The delinquency rate on the more than 5,000 PALs extended thus far is 2.5 percent. “For payday lenders, it’s a success if customers keep taking out loans. To me, it’s a success if they don’t have to anymore,” Jacob says. He believes such loans can build a credit history and help “move people to better products for them and us—auto loans and, eventually, mortgage loans.”

Lending small amounts of money, carefully and responsibly, to working-class people isn’t a recipe for riches or grand executive living. At the headquarters of ShoreBank, which occupies a former movie theater built in 1923, the window in one founder’s office looks out onto a brick wall. Bystry, the CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI, earns a salary of $190,000, a pittance compared with the compensation of larger lenders. (Angelo Mozilo, former CEO of Countrywide Financial, was paid $22.1 million in 2007.) For all the growth, this remains very much a niche industry.

Still, the mortgage crisis has provided an opportunity for ethical subprime lenders to expand. ShoreBank has added staffers and in August 2007 rolled out a Rescue Loan program, which aims to move borrowers out of expensive adjustable-rate mortgages into fixed-rate loans. “We really believe we can help people caught in these bad mortgages,” says Jean Pogge, executive vice president of consumer and community banking at ShoreBank. And with plenty of lenders having failed or pulled back from markets, new customers are flocking to their doors. “We’re getting demand for regular co-op loans for the first time,” says Levy of the Lower East Side Credit Union. In California, the news on housing may be unrelentingly grim, but through the third quarter, Clearinghouse CDFI made 161 loans for $48.4 million, up about 50 percent from the total in the first three quarters of 2007. Doug Bystry says, “This may be a record year for us.”

With Andrew Murr in Los Angeles and Hilary Shenfeld in Chicago

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/169160

LAUNCH OF NEW E-BANKING KIOSK IN CENTRAL HARLEM BRANCH

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:41:00 -0500

New York, NY— The LES People’s Federal Credit Union (LESPFCU) is pleased to announce the launch of our new E-Banking Kiosk in the Central Harlem branch. With this new Kiosk, the LESPFCU can offer even more services such as ATM, bill pay, check cashing, purchase of phone cards and gift cards and lots more. The Harlem branch is located on 2052 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. between 122nd Street and 123rd Street.

Linda Levy, CEO of LES People’s stated, “We are excited to join with PSI in providing cutting edge technology to our members and neighbors in Central Harlem.” The launch of the E-Banking Kiosk will support the Harlem community in providing additional access to affordable financial services, and financial education. LESPFCU is proud to contribute to the economic expansion of Central Harlem and looks forward to continue serving this community.

David Foni, CEO of PSI Corp (PSCP.PK) remarked, “This is a wonderful opportunity for the LESPFCU, Tellagent LLC and PSI Corp. When PSI was created its central endeavor was to empower those communities who required banking services but were unable to obtain low cost services. Tellagent LLC is PSI Corporation’s exclusive distributor for the credit union industry”.

The LES People’s Federal Credit Union is a member owned non-profit institution which reinvests our members’ money in the Lower East Side and Central Harlem to provide a full range of personal, affordable financial services to our communities. Our goal is to stimulate the economic and community development of our neighborhoods by providing a safe, sound and democratic alternative to traditional banks.

LESPFCU began as a grass root movement that joined in the fighting to preserve and protect one of the poorest communities located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In 1986 with the support of members of this community, the National Credit Union Administration and countless others, LESPFCU became the only financial institution to service a community that had no access to affordable financial services in a radius of 100 city blocks. In 2005, we expanded to serve Central Harlem and opened the branch there.

The Lower East Side and Harlem communities are becoming more gentrified each day but there are still members of these communities that have no credit or poor credit. The LESPFCU gives the community the opportunity to create businesses and take out personal loans with more flexibility then traditional banks. These opportunities provide members with the tools they need to improve their economic condition and expand the economic development of their neighborhood.

PSI Corp. provides interactive customer communications systems and applications that support the targeted marketing programs at point-of-purchase (POP) service and information. The company has two vertical products: full motion video digital signage and full service Cash Express™ Kiosks/ATM. For more information please visit the company website: www.pantelsystems.com.

LESPFCU Semifinalist for Wachovia NEXT Awards

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:00:00 -0500

LOWER EAST SIDE PEOPLE’S FEDERAL CREDIT UNION PICKED TO COMPETE FOR $8.25 MILLION WACHOVIA NEXT AWARDS FOR OPPORTUNITY FINANCE

Large Awards Spotlight Past Performance and Future Potential in Hard-to-Serve Markets

Semifinalists in 8 States from California and Louisiana to New York and New Hampshire

NEW YORK CITY – One of the nation’s largest and most prestigious awards programs in the financial services industry today announced New York City-based Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union (LESPFCU) is a semifinalist for $2.75 million to scale up their success. Community development financial institutions (CDFIs)are special purpose financial institutions skilled at creating opportunities and economic growth in hard-to-serve markets across the nation.

This year’s contenders serve diverse urban and rural populations and offer potent antidotes to the lending practices that led to today’s financial markets crisis.

Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union (LESPFCU) is a community development credit union, with branches on the Lower East Side and Central Harlem, which has been providing safe, alternative financial services for 22 years.

The Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance in partnership with The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is run by the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) and funded through OFN by The Wachovia Foundation and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance recognize excellence among financial institutions that responsibly serve lowincome and low-wealth people and communities.

“Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union has blazed an unlikely trail on solid ground against expectations,” said Mark Pinsky, CEO of the Philadelphia-based Opportunity Finance Network. “All 10 CDFIs have proven their ability to transform communities and markets and are ready to make significant leaps forward.”

LESPFCU CEO, Linda Levy said: “We are delighted to be singled out for recognition as a semifinalist in the review process for the Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance. This validates our hard work in the community and our efforts bring opportunity finance to people and neighborhoods that might not otherwise benefit from it. We are honored to be actively considered for an Award that could really transform LESPFCU and take it to the next level.”

The awards were first introduced in 2007. The 10 semifinalists for 2008 are: ASI Federal Credit Union, Harahan, La.; Community First Fund, Lancaster, Pa.; Corporation for Supportive Housing, New York; Homewise, Inc, Santa Fe, N.M.; IFF, Chicago, Ill.; Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union, New York; Low Income Investment Fund, San Francisco, Calif.; Neighborhood Housing Services, Chicago, Ill.; New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Concord, N.H.; Southern Bancorp, Arkadelphia, Ark.

The $8.25 million in grants and investments will be awarded to two CDFIs with excellent past performance and exceptional potential to extend or expand their work. A distinguished Selection Committee will meet in Chicago on September 25th to select the recipients. The Selection Committee will announce the awardees of the Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at a ceremony attended by more than 700 of their peers in Albuquerque, N.M. during OFN’s Annual Conference.

Last year’s awardees were the Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) of Durham, N.C. and ACCION Texas, a statewide organization based in San Antonio, Texas. LCCU is using its $5.5 million award to keep pace with its growing market of immigrant and low-income customers across North Carolina. ACCION Texas has put its $2.75 million prize into extending its micro-lending reach, to help micro-entrepreneurs in the Lone Star state and neighboring states using a unique micro-credit scoring model.

“This year’s awardees will define what it means to be NEXT,” said Mike Rizer, executive vice president for the Wachovia Foundation. “We’re proud to continue our long-standing support for the Opportunity Finance industry with our investment in the Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance, which will help innovative, up-and-coming CDFIs grow and create even more economic opportunity for families and communities.”

Like LCCU and ACCION Texas, this year’s awardees must show financial strength, a boldbut- sound vision for their organization’s future, exceptional leadership to realize their potential, and a commitment to excellence and innovation.

The Wachovia NEXT Awards were established to spotlight how CDFIs increasingly benefit our economy. CDFIs are market-based, private-sector financial intermediaries that finance opportunities benefiting low-wage and low-wealth people. They help people and communities beyond the reach of conventional finance to join the economic mainstream and open “opportunity markets” to mainstream institutions. At year-end 2006, the CDFIs in OFN had cumulative net charge-off rates of less than 1.3 percent, based on more than $25 billion in financing over more than 30 years.

“The Opportunity Finance industry’s track record gives us confidence and hope, even at this time of serious economic challenges,” added Debra Schwartz, director of program related investments for the MacArthur Foundation. “We hope that these game-changing awards will educate all who participate in our country’s financial and credit markets about the pivotal role of CDFIs and the valuable contributions they’re poised to make in the years ahead.”

To arrange to interview Mark Pinsky, CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network, the Wachovia NEXT Award semifinalists and spokespeople from the Wachovia and MacArthur Foundations, please contact Jeanine Plant at 212.245.0510 or jplant@pro-mediacommunications.com.

check the complete article here.

Get Your FREE METS Tickets!

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:27:00 -0500

Get Your FREE METS Tickets!

If you are already a member of our credit union Refer a Friend and you will get 2 FREE METS Tickets!

It’s that Simple! HURRY! This promotion will end in Mid- September!!

Another great reason to be a part of a credit union!!

The Best of Harlem Magazine

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:41:00 -0500

Chris D. Kilpatrick is the Vice President of ’’Marketing Inside and Out Advertising’’ (MIOA), which has created various publications meant to connect consumers with local businesses.

MIOA began 8 years ago in New Jersey before expanding last year to Harlem. Since then, MIOA has introduced ’’The Best of Harlem”.

This magazine is mailed directly to residents and it offers a venue for businesses to advertise as well as an opportunity for consumers to discover new stores and find discounts.

Why did this growing enterprise choose the LES People’s Federal Credit Union (LESPCFU) for their business account? “The Credit Union is ’’hands on’’, which is very advantageous for small businesses looking for individual attention,’’ said Chris.

Even though he is operating in two cities, Chris can still see the benefits of having accessible personal who can give his business the one – on – one attention that it needs.

Aside from the Credit Union’s businesses accounts, Chris emphasized the competitive rates offered to small business owners and other members.

“If you’re looking for a good percentage for a Personal Line of Credit (P-LOC) or for a VISA credit card then LESPFCU’s rates are very aggressive; it’s ideal for businesses trying to start up,’’ said Chris, who has expanded his business to Manhattan East and soon to Manhattan West.

For more information about MIOA, call (212) 234-5486 or e-mail mioanyc@gmail.com.

Traveling Internationally this Summer?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:36:00 -0500

If you are planning to travel out of the country, please speak to a Member Service Representative before your trip to discuss safer ways to access your money.

To protect your money from fraud, many countries are now being blocked from Debit Card PIN transactions.

Sloan Fine Art Gallery

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:09:00 -0500

Alix explored her love for art while working for a museum after she completed her Humanities degree in her home state of California. Paintings took a back seat however, when Alix began working in the film industry, where she stayed for many years. After trying her hand in the dot-com market, Alix felt that it was time to return to the world of art and start her own business in her new home of New York City!

Of course, starting an art gallery in New York is no small task, which is why Alix decided to collaborate with Tiffanie, a financial consultant, who recommended that Sloan Arts bank with the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union (LESPFCU). Was it good advice? “We appreciated the decision immediately,’’ said Alix.

“We recently received an invitation to an art showing,” said Alix, which is an important step for any art gallery. The art showing is important because it would give us more exposure in the art world, which is crucial for art galleries wanting to make a name for themselves. Although Alix and Tiffanie were ready to make the investment and send in their entrance fee for the showing, they did not have the liquid assets on hand.

The nature of the art world means that art galleries must wait, sometimes for weeks or months, for a check from a buyer. This means that there are oftentimes layovers when an art gallery has earned money but will not actually receive the money for a period of time; time that would have made Alix and Tiffany miss their deadline.

“So we came to Alfonsina Morel,” the LESPFCU’s Small Business Loan Officer. Alfonsina gave Sloan Fine Art overdraft protection, which allowed Alix and Tiffanie to pay their entrance fee and make their deadline without worrying about whether their checks had come in. Now Alix and Tiffanie are gearing up for their first art showing, thanks to their hard work and help from LESPFCU. Their experience pulls together the essence of what LESPFCU is all about: allowing small businesses to begin taking the steps they need to succeed.

Sloan Fine Art is located on 128 Rivington Street at the corner of Norfolk Street. Visit their website for more information about the gallery, www.sloanfineart.com.