By Frank J. Diekmann
Two, four, six, eight, who don’t we appreciate?
That honor would have to go to NCUA.
There was much to observe and hear during NAFCU’s annual meeting in Montreal last week, beginning with all the views on the federal regulator. In an opening keynote, NAFCU CEO Dan Berger made clear that tension with the regulator remains high, with the trade group again voicing its support for the NCUA Budget Transparency Act that is currently before Congress. That bill would require GAO to conduct an in-depth review of the Share Insurance Fund, the Corporate Stabilization Fund, the Central Liquidity Facility and NCUA’s annual operating budget. NAFCU is also backing a bill introduced by Sen. Dean Heller from Nevada and Sen. Mark Warner from Virginia that would require public hearings on NCUA’s annual budget.
“It's time for the NCUA to have real checks and balances that bring the costs down for the credit unions that fund the agency’s existence with your members’ money,” said Berger, who like several other NAFCU execs made clear that the primary revision they want to see with NCUA’s revised risk-based capital proposal is to have it revoked.
And Then, A Day Later...
One day later, on the same stage, NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz talked about what she called the “Year of Regulatory Relief” from NCUA, highlighting six areas where the agency is easing up in ways that have been demanded for years by credit unions, including in the areas of field of membership and member business lending.
Matz’s remarks received polite response but not a lot of enthusiasm, and you have to wonder if the audience and NAFCU wouldn’t have reacted much differently if NCUA board member Mark McWatters–the popular, deregulation-minded, Republican on the board–had come out and given the exact same speech. I can see and hear the standing ovation now.
From the You Can’t Please Any of the People Any of the Time Dept. (on my flight to Montreal I actually heard one person complain that the flight attendant was “overly friendly”), Matz had hardly finished her discours’ at the Palais des Congres on the six areas where NCUA is focusing its regulatory relief efforts when the American Bankers Association issued a statement critical of the agency for being too much of a “cheerleader” for the CUs it regulates, and once again repeating its call for an end to the CU tax exemption. Two bits, four bits, six bits, it’s about the dollar.
Funny, CUToday.info staff talked to a lot of people at the NAFCU annual meeting about NCUA and we got a lot of responses, but one word you never heard was “cheerleader.”
CUToday.info has plenty of coverage from the meeting:
- Highlights of Berger’s keynote here.
- A panel discussion by NAFCU Hill staff on the inner workings of Washington and what’s ahead here.
- Two former NCUA board members offering some behind-the-scenes insights here.
- An NCUA regional director sharing his perspective here.
Watch for additional coverage in CUToday.info this week.
Not Just Talking Chip Cards
Plenty of credit union meetings have been equally plentiful with attention to the new chip cards being issued to help fight fraud and to get ahead of the Oct. 1 EMV liability shift deadline, including the NAFCU annual meeting. But for those Americans carrying chip cards at the conference in Montreal, for many it was their first chance to actually practice “dipping” rather than swiping their cards, as Canada already has the technology in place.
Practically every merchant and restaurant uses the hand-held card terminals, and I watched and listened as many Americans were walked through just how to use the machines.
If your credit union hasn’t done so already you should bring in the devices for your own employees to use and get comfortable with, and perhaps even give lobby demo’s for members.
During his company’s annual meeting earlier this year, CSCU CEO Bob Hackney observed, “With EMV, the question now is how many are educating employees. You have to have employees who know how to train the member. You have to get your employees on board first.”
This is a pretty big change to a long-standing consumer behavior, and while everyone talks about “embracing” change, it’s hard not to notice you seldom see people giving change a hug.
So hug them first.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator-in-Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info.