April's Fools: More Visionary Leadership Out of Alexandria….

NEWS FLASH:  NCUA DENIES APPLICATION FOR CREDIT UNION CHARTER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

Proposed Home-Base of 
St Marys Credit Union.

DATELINE MANCHESTER, N.H. (1909): "NCUA today refused the request from a group of local French-speaking mill workers, led by Monsignor Pierre Hevey, to charter the first credit union in the United States. The CU is desperately needed because traditional institutions have historically failed to provide basic thrift and lending services to French-Catholic working men and women in Manchester.    

The proposed credit union would have been called St. Mary's Cooperative and Credit Association and would have been operated out of the home of Joseph Bolvin, the credit union's first president, on Notre Dame Avenue.  An all-volunteer staff would have assisted with daily activities.  The safe was to be a metal box purchased from Manchester's French daily newspaper, L'Avenir National.  Operating conditions would have been basic, but it was the mission which mattered."  (St. Mary's Credit Union - click on "About Us" at top)

But NCUA these days can no longer be inconvenienced by "start-ups", or small "we-make-a-real-difference every-day" credit unions, nor with credit unions where…

…. the mission still matters more than size or location.  

I don't see
any problem?

NCUA has grown unjustifiably self-important and has decreed in its latest proposed rule (without the benefit of any statutory authority!)
that: 

"Additionally the proposal would require all FCU's to obtain and maintain a business office not located on the premises of a private residence address, no later than two years following the effective date of a final rule."

Unrestrained, no longer accountable.

…. every credit union person should take a few minutes to read the reasoning and circumlocution which the NCUA uses to justify this rule. ( go to ncua.gov, click on "Regulations, Publications & Reports", then click "Regs/Legal", scroll down to "Proposed Rules" and look at "Requirements for Contact with FCU").

Hope we are all embarrassed (again!) by the Agency and by this rule …. the final nail in the "regulatory-compliance" coffin which has been created by the NCUA for small credit unions. For certain, there can now, never arise another new idea like St Marys Credit Cooperative and Credit Association - NCUA has permanently slammed that door shut!

St Marys today is a $ 772 million CU serving over 87,000 working men and women in the greater Manchester area.

Too humble of beginnings
to match NCUA's hubris?

The Monsignor would be ashamed of all of us… for letting this happen.


… don't wait for "never".