Rhode Island Depositors Receive Pep Talk : Banking: Twelve closed credit unions are to reopen today. Gov. Bruce G. Sundlun asks customers not to pull their money, saying it is safe.

Gov. Bruce G. Sundlun appeared on interview shows and at other forums through the weekend to reassure Rhode Islanders that a dozen reinsured credit unions that are set to open today are stronger than ever and depositors’ money should be left in them.

Twelve of the 45 credit unions and banks that Sundlun closed hours after taking office last week have obtained federal insurance, paid their premiums, signed contracts with the National Credit Union Administration and are set to open.

The governor repeatedly has stressed that all of the institutions have the full faith and credit of the federal government behind them.

“When these credit unions open, the best thing (depositors) can do is leave their money in the institution,” he said.

“We all know that if they take that money out, someone’s going to lose that cash, or it’s going to be stolen, or it’s going to be mislaid. Leave it there.”

But if the experience of the weekend is any indication, Sundlun’s message may go unheeded when the 12 credit unions reopen.

Saturday was the first day that people could get Social Security and other federal payments that normally are deposited directly into their now-frozen credit union and bank accounts.

When the institutions covered by the failed private insurer Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corp. were closed, the direct deposits were frozen. So the U.S. Treasury Department set up a special account with federally insured Citizens Bank to distribute the new checks.

Beneficiaries of the checks waited in line for two hours or more at Citizens’ 52 branches statewide Saturday to obtain their money. Many said it was their only source of income.

“With this money I might be OK, I just don’t know. But at least I’ll have it and that means a lot,” retired candy maker Louise Fiore, 82, said after she got her Social Security money at a Citizens branch in Warwick.

Sundlun’s staff also set up regulations over the weekend that will allow depositors at closed institutions who are “in dire economic need” to withdraw up to $1,000 for food, to maintain medical insurance or to keep their utilities from being shut off.

Rhode Island was plunged into its banking crisis when Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corp.’s reserve fund nearly dried up because it had to pump cash into two failed institutions, Heritage Loan and Investment Co. and Jefferson Loan and Investment Co.

The deposit insurer turned to the state after admitting that it too had failed.

Sundlun ordered the insurer’s member institutions closed until they obtained federal insurance.

By the weekend, 22 had received tentative approval for federal insurance. Of those, 12 were set to reopen.

But the others, holding the bulk of the $1.7 billion in deposits that were frozen, were turned down. Now, they and the state are scrambling to find a way for them to reopen.

In the meantime, Sundlun spent time talking to reporters and appearing on weekend interview shows to bolster waning confidence in the state’s credit unions.

“You ladies and gentlemen of the media, the greatest service you can render to the people of Rhode Island right now is to make that message very clear,” the governor said on WLNE-TV. “Instill in (depositors) the confidence to leave their money in their credit accounts.”