What Happens When A Lender’s Borrowers All Lose Their Jobs At Once?

Credit unions whose borrowers work in casinos, oil and other industries hit hard by the coronavirus struggle to respond. What Happens When A Lender’s Borrowers All Lose Their Jobs At Once?

When Nevada’s governor ordered all nonessential businesses to close, Rick Schmidt told his wife, “there goes the Strip.” With it, went the jobs of scores of borrowers who owe him money.

Mr. Schmidt is the chief executive of WestStar Credit Union, which caters to the employees of Nevada’s gaming industry. Thousands of blackjack dealers, bartenders and hotel housekeepers who have loans and savings accounts there are now out of work.

One in five of WestStar’s borrowers has asked for a deferral on a car or home loan, a number Mr. Schmidt expects to go up as casinos stay closed to control the spread of the coronavirus.

“We see the good parts of having that tight community all the time—we know our members, we know their employers, we know what they need,” Mr. Schmidt said. “The bad part we’re seeing now.”

Almost a third of the nation’s 5,200-plus credit unions are tied to a single employer, industry or other association, according to the Credit Union National Association, a trade group. Marriott International Inc. has one. So does Walt Disney Co. Both companies have laid off or furloughed thousands of workers during the pandemic.

Credit unions have historically been built around “common bonds,” meaning members might work for the same company or industry, live in the same place or serve in the military together. The firms are owned by their members and designed to return their profits in the form of lower borrowing costs or higher savings rates, which exempts them from federal income taxes.

These characteristics allow credit unions to offer more customized services to their members. But their customers can also simultaneously suffer mass layoffs.

Over time, regulators have relaxed restrictions on who can join, and some credit unions now resemble bigger commercial banks. The largest of them, Navy Federal Credit Union, has more than nine million members and $125 billion in assets—larger than many regional banks.

But many still resemble Endurance Federal Credit Union, which is based in Duncan, Okla., and was founded in 1960 for Halliburton Co. employees and other oil-field workers. Before the pandemic, about a third of its 15,500 members still worked at the oil-field-services giant, according to CEO Chris Bower.

Sinking demand has pushed oil prices so low that many wells in Texas and Oklahoma are closing. Halliburton has laid off or furloughed more than 4,500 employees in the U.S. since the beginning of March, including almost 600 in Duncan, according to notices filed with a state employment office.

That trickles down to other companies that employ Endurance members, like Flotek Industries Inc. and National Oilwell Varco Inc.’s subsidiary HydraRig, which make chemicals and coiled tubing for wells.

“This many people, in a town this size, hurting all at the same time,” Mr. Bower said. “Find me a big bank where that’s true.”
Endurance has $155 million of assets, including $95 million in car loans. Mr. Bower said the credit union has given 90-day deferrals to many customers and stopped repossessions.

“You’re just putting a Band-Aid on a huge wound. But what’s the alternative?” he said. “I don’t want to own a parking lot full of cars.”

Duncan, which calls itself “The Buckle on the Oil Belt,” has been a boom-and-bust town since the first well was dug nearby in 1918. Halliburton was founded a year later and remains the area’s biggest employer, which means Endurance has dealt with major layoffs before, whenever oil prices fall.

“The joke around here is, ‘It’s been two or three years, time for another round,’” said Phil Van Buskirk, the credit union’s vice president of lending. His brother is an equipment inspector at Halliburton who survived the latest downsizing.

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