Caution If You Bought or Are Thinking of Buying East Coast Credit Union GICs | Page 6 | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

GR said

I will not post the entire letter because:
1) As the letter was not addressed to me, I feel it would be inappropriate to post the entire letter. I have summarized the main points. If you bought, or are thinking of buying, an ECCU GIC, ask your GIC broker for a copy.
2) For some reason, the document will not allow me to copy and paste it.  

You can take a picture or Windows snipping tool and sharpie out names etc. But I also respect your reason not to do it.

canadian.100 said
A week ago, I sent an email to FSRA to get their response on the membership requirement if purchasing via a Broker. I have not had a response so far. It appears not much concern was given to the issue until brought up in this blog and no one took the step to document properly so that consumers, agencies and brokers are crystal clear on the process re membership when using a Broker.
I guess that it will get done e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y. Kudos for the NS agency issuing the letter.  

they are just slow cuz its never a problem, until the moment it becomes one.
Or even worse, no one "thinks" its a problem. Way too many A tells B, B tells C, and no one questions if A may be wrong...

HermanH said

You've done plenty and it is much appreciated.

I've received information second-hand originally issued by East Coast CU. I am not at liberty to post the original, but was given permission to summarize its contents. In short, it says that every deposit holder becomes an Associate member of ECCU.

This Associate membership shall have all member obligations, except for
1) voting,
2) directorship of ECCU, and
3) dividend participation.

I'll contact the source and ask that he join the discussion on this board to make the situation clearer. After all, it is in his and the entire industry's best interests.  

Think all that we care about is whether being an "associate member" meet the requirement of the insurer to be coverd or not. Its really a very simple Yes or No answer. Not what ECCU says or thinks, but rather the insurer / regulator.
And whether every single person who bought a GIC via brokers in the past are indeed associate member, assume that satisfies the insurer's policy.

HermanH said
I would judge the differences between Associate member and full member are probably similar to those of Voting Shares / Preferred Shares / and Common Shares. It sounds reasonable to me. Just looking for official pronouncement and confirmation.  

But thats the issue. Whats sounds reasonable to you, to the brokers, to the ECCU is irrelevant if that does not meet the regulator's requirement.

Lets have a definite answer from the officials instead of all these wordings, names, classes of members. That is just adding fog to the issue in my mind. It should NOT be this complicated at all.