Haiku For You...

All Knowing

Life does not exist

On the dark side of the Moon.

Why are you so sure?

Jay Birdegg.....

"You are the sunshine of my life,

That's why I'll always stay around."

- Stevie Wonder ("You are.... ", 1972)

From The Field...

Possible "unauthorized transaction":


"That charge on our card is not correct!  My husband couldn't have been at that gas station; he was supposed to be out of town that day..."


(Adding fuel to the fire?)

From The Field...

"We recently held a staff fundraiser to replenish the food cupboard at the hospital Family House.  Everyone was required to bring several non-perishable food items as a donation.  We ended up with an SUV full of "Let's Refill the Panty" canned goods...."


(Well, demand for food has always been "inelastic"...)

Cosmic Laughter....

The Dalai Lama walked into a pizza restaurant and asked....

"Can you make me one with everything?"

(Well, I thought it was funny...sorry!)

Robust Balderdashery.....

If you haven't as yet discovered '"The Economist" magazine, you might like to investigate this marvelous opportunity to meet and better understand the wider world - on a weekly basis.  Pair it with your hometown weekly newspaper... and there is little left you need to know about how the world works.....  


Couple of weeks back, "The E" ran a review of a new book by Leonard Mlodinow (must be from Wisconsin with a name like that!) called "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior."


Mlodinow, a theoretical physicist (I'm not quite sure what that is either), makes much in the book about how much of our lives are dominated by our subconscious mind; and that, "conscious reasoning makes up a comparatively small part of the activity in our brain."  If you think about it, that certainly makes a lot of sense.  Actually if you don't think about it, it makes even more sense.  So much of our daily lives are truly on "automatic pilot"....

Form Over Substance...?

Wise Move!

Would like to congratulate the NCUA Board and particularly its Chair Ms. Matz on a long overdue change to the reporting of "troubled debt restructurings"(TDRs) and delinquency on the CU 5300 Quarterly Call Report. Don't look so shocked!!  Give credit where credit is due; and this is a tremendously positive and prudent move for a whole lot of reasons.  The proposed change in reporting requirements is on the NCUA Board Agenda for this Thursday, May 24.



Why is this change important? Chair Matz outlines the benefits clearly in the NCUA Board Action Bulletin "NCUA Supports Regulatory Relief in Loan Modification Proposal", dated Jan. 26, 2012 (see www. ncua.gov). Here's what Chair Matz said:


"When credit union officials told me that an NCUA policy was forcing them, in some cases, to foreclose on troubled members seeking lower payments, I committed to change that policy, and my colleagues immediately joined this effort.  In addition to benefiting members, this new TDR policy will also provide relief for credit unions."

NCUA gets on the bus...finally!

The Bulletin also noted that the TDR change would result "in similar parameters as those previously established in the Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council (65 FR 36903)".  In other words NCUA is the only federal regulator still using this practice....forcing credit unions, "in some cases, to foreclose on troubled members"...


So  what's the catch?  (Knew you would be suspicious of this new found affection for "the big blue"!) Well, one credit union with which I am familiar (yes, lucky guess!) has already reported TDRs under the new approach offering the following reasons:

• We agree with the NCUA Chair.
• Instructions on how to report are already on the NCUA website.
• Been arguing with "big blue" about this for over two years.
• TDR reporting has been so insanely complex and manual that it is clear that this rule has been applied inconsistenly by loan type , by CPAs, by NCUA region, and - as now acknowledged - was out of step with the reporting standards established for other financial institutions.
• The rule has caused much harm to CU members and tarnished the reputation of credit unions in general as reasonable, caring institutions.
• Past TDR reporting has misled users of Call Report data as to the true, comparable delinquency status of CUs vis-a-vis peers and other institutions.
• Past TDR reporting adversely affects only a narrow range of CUs which are 1) heavy mortgage lenders, 2) actively worked to keep members in their homes with good results, and 3) actually reported correctly under a poor rule.
• NCUA staff have been well apprised of this reporting problem for over two years at least and, for whatever reason, did not bring the problem to the attention of the Chair and Board.

So?.....

Non-profit banks...

A "not-for-pig" institution...

Always chuckle at those "You're nothing more than a non-profit bank" type insults that are so frequently hurled at Credit Unions by folks such as the American Bankers Association.


Oxymorons are always great fun - like: fiscally responsible Democrat, compassionate Republican, Congressional compromise, balanced federal budget, or just shorten that to "federal budget" since its been awhile since the Country actually had a budget - balanced or otherwise!  We all perhaps should consider a little more deeply the import of an "unbalanced" federal budget!  Because, what's going on now with federal spending definitely appears "insane!"


But, back to the basics; banks are in business to make money, to make a profit; so the idea that there might exist an organization called a "non-profit bank" certainly stretches the imagination, logic... and perhaps the truth.


After all, a credit union operates on a "not-for-profit" basis on purpose and "by choice"; if a bank operates on a "not-for-profit" basis it's always "by accident"!


Quite a few "banking accidents" still out there these days ...

Haiku For You...

Sensitivity

What's important

Is too difficult to feel

At times without wine.

From The Field...

"The branch has been heavenly involved in giving member presentations this month..."


(Undoubtedly spreading "the gospel" about the CU...)