Chip Filson
I am skeptical about whether a politically chosen advisory board is an effective venue for credit unions to influence NCUA. Both the Federal Reserve and CFPB have advisory boards in which credit unions are members. Whether these forums are more than a public relations event is difficult to determine. Therefore, I thought listening to an …
Continue reading “Should NCUA Create a Credit Union Advisory Board?”
On June 12 I described NCUA’s May 17, 2019 conservatorship of Municipal Credit Union in New York City. The critical point was who will be the conservator? What will be the plan? Will NCUA’s chosen leader knock the place down or build it up? We now have an answer. In less than two months on …
Continue reading “588,000 Members About to Lose Their Credit Union”
Two reports show that fraud continues to be a major cause of credit union failure. Someone at NCUA should own this problem and fix it.
Recently I posted two blogs that lifted stories Jeff Farver, a former credit union CEO turnaround artist, wrote for his family and friends about his career. War Stories or How Creative Leaders Save Credit Unions: Part 1 War Stories or How Creative Leaders Save Credit Unions: Part 2 In three multi-year workouts, two as CEO, …
In a recent blog reviewing the latest events in the May 2019 NCUA conservatorship of MCU, I suggested that the real problem was the failure of regulators, especially NCUA, to publicly explain their actions and intentions. The lack of transparency means that no one is taking responsibility for decisions made. Contrast this approach with the …
Continue reading “An Example of Regulatory Leadership in the 1977 MCU Conservatorship”
It is one thing to be uninformed on a critical issue of public policy. It is another to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. And then compound the folly by writing a public editorial after losing a 2 to 1 vote at the most recent NCUA Board meeting. Harper’s Rationale for Implementing Risk Based …
Continue reading “NCUA Board Member Harper’s Uninformed Stance on Risk-Based Capital (RBC)”
It is hard not to feel rushed in the Christmas season. The December countdown of shopping days left reinforces a sense of urgency. And the year-end looming a week later, brings a set of new goals with deadlines. Yet the cooperative model rewards the human and organizational virtue of patience. This is a characteristic often …
Over the past twelve months the credit union community is on the hook or paid the bills for the following situations: A $1 billion cash payout for the Melrose CU and LOMTO FCU liquidations; An estimated $40.5 million shortfall for a two decade embezzlement by the CEO at CBS Employees FCU; A $125 Million write …
Continue reading “The Cost of Not Learning from Our Brethren’s Mistakes”
Recently I visited Bentonville, AR the home of Walmart. There is a Walmart Museum that provides a history of the company. Included is a hologram figure of founder Sam Walton who will answer questions, using an AI program, that visitors may ask. One posed this query to Sam’s artificial reincarnation, “Are you cheap?” referring to …
Continue reading “NCUA’s 2024/5 Budget and the Impulse to Spend”
IN 1973 a critic of mainstream economic thought was published in Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher. The author espoused a principle that small, appropriate technologies, policies, and polities were a superior alternative to the accepted ethos of “bigger is better”. His thesis is the exact opposite …