COSSEC wraps up Fiscal ’13 with $229.2M in assets
Daniel Rodríguez-Collazo
The Corporation for the Supervision and Insurance of Puerto Rico Cooperatives, known as COSSEC in Spanish, wrapped up Fiscal 2013 with $229.2 million in assets, a 5.86 percent year-over-year increase, President Daniel Rodríguez-Collazo said during the entity’s annual convention this weekend.
COSSEC saw an increase of $12.7 percent when compared to the prior year, he said.
“Ninety-five percent of those assets, or $217 million, correspond to our portfolio of investment assets,” Rodríguez-Collazo said. “It is in the investment portfolio where we recorded the most significant increase in assets, raising about $ 11 million compared with the previous year.”
“The average yield on investment assets was 3.60 percent, an improvement of 35 basis points compared with the previous year,” he said. “This increase is mainly in response to the risk management and investment strategies we have begun to implement.”
The public corporation’s capital increased to $197.1 million as of June 30, 2013, representing an increase of $11.6 million, or 6.2 percent year-over-year. This balance represents a solid net asset-to-total asset ratio 86 percent, he said, noting the result reflects the agency’s financial strength as well as that of Puerto Rico’s credit unions in general.
The year-over-year capital base increase was due largely to an jump of about $4.3 million in capital contributions by insured co-ops. Of that, $2.5 million corresponds to additional co-op contributions and a $1.8 million surplus provided by COSSEC. For its part, the contingency reserve remains strong, at $27.8 million as of June 30, 2013, an increase of 3 percent when compared to 2012.
Rodríguez-Collazo said operating results remained positive throughout fiscal 2012, despite facing economic challenges and volatility in financial markets.
At June 30, 2013, COSSEC’s net surplus totaled $9.1 million, a decrease of $4.7 million or 34 percent compared to the previous year, mainly due to a $6.5 million unrealized drop in the market value of the corporation’s investments available for sale. This unrealized decline is equal to 3.01 percent of the total investment assets available for sale.
“However, and as part of our restructuring plan for the investment portfolio, we repositioned our investment assets by tempering them to the current conditions of the capital markets,” he said. “Furthermore, we have established the necessary reserves in our capital structure and we have updated our risk management strategies.”
COSSEC’s net interest income amounted to $8.4 million, an increase of 25 percent attributed to the restructuring of the investment portfolio toward assets with a greater maturity term, resulting in an increase in their average performance, he said.
Operational expenses totaled $12.6 million, representing a $5.2 million reduction, or 29 percent year-over-year drop.
Looking ahead, Rodríguez-Collazo said COSSEC’s strategy for calls for establishing greater controls, providing better education to co-op members and representatives, adopting technological as well as more effective administrative tools, and implementing a new plan to stick to the agency’s vision and goals for the next four years.
