On The Credit Union Trades ...

TRADE ASSOCIATION
LEADERSHIP...

A MANNEQUIN CHALLENGE?

... or...

Here's A Chance To Find Out If You Want To Pay Dues Next Year!

Some of us have "whined" a good bit about the unbelievable scandal at Wells Fargo, have "groused" about the less than ideal choice in Presidential candidates, and "raised the alarm" that our democratic government seems to have become a "pay to play", Wall Street insiders' joke on the people...

It seems that the credit union movement may have a little potential BILLION DOLLAR SCANDAL [link] of its very own on its hands. Probably isn't; quite sure it's all on the "up-and-up", because credit unions are "the guys who wear the white hats" in the financial services arena, right? Right! Absolutely! Unquestionably! Without a doubt!

Well, if so, then there can be absolutely no reason for NCUA not to publicly air the full story behind how the contingency legal fee arrangements were thought to be beneficial, how prospective firms were identified, and the process through which the firms were selected. How can the truth hurt anyone? What would there be to hide? Why wouldn't we want to confirm to credit unions, Congress, and our 105 million taxpaying members that "Credit Unions are different!"?

   AND YOU KNOW WHO SHOULD ASK...

Mission Accomplished....

Been a bit of controversy brewing within the blog "Comments" over the last few days about the role and effectiveness of the CU trades - primarily CUNA and NAFCU, but without doubt also the leagues and NASCUS.

Dues decision time is once again just around the corner for credit unions.  Thought it might be appropriate to recognize and reemphasize the progress CUNA has made over the last 18-24 months on the issues of governance, transparency and reform: 

"The membership of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) has overwhelmingly voted to modernize the associations bylaws. This historic change creates a new, open membership model for CUNA and empowers the board of directors to maintain a fair dues formula and board structure as the credit union system evolves."[link]

Really?

"This is a tremendous victory for credit unions. I am grateful to our members for this strong vote of confidence in CUNA and for embracing a modern, national trade association model

"A tremendous victory"?

that will help us build an even stronger, more effective, and more united credit union system," said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle.

So, what has changed...

Statuary Authority...

I generally don't read fiction, but happened to be reading CUNA's Membership@Work newsletter recently for the 2nd quarter of 2015 [here's the link], when I ran into the following unusual thought.


On page 3 of the newsletter is an article summarizing CUNA's April 17, 2015 comment letter [here's the link] to NCUA on the proposed risk-based capital (RBC) rule.
  

The statuary risk group...

The article says one of CUNA's key points in the comment letter was that: "NCUA does not have statuary authority to establish a RBC standard for the purposes of determining whether a credit union is well-capitalized."

Would hope that that statement is true, but the way NCUA has been acting the last few years, would be willing to bet NCUA thinks it has statuary authority over credit unions, if you know what I mean!

But in all seriousness, CUNA's letter does clearly state...