CUNA Invited to Meet Again with FHFB on Election Issues

WASHINGTON-CUNA just may take the Federal Housing Finance Board up on an invitation to meet again to ask and answer questions on the difficulty credit union representatives are having getting on the boards of the Federal Home Loan Banks. But it will probably have to wait until after CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference is over, CUNA Associate General Counsel Mary Dunn said. However, she said a productive question and answer period with the regulators would be beneficial to the issue, in contrast to the formal hearing FHFB held recently where CUNA testified. Dunn added that CUNA does not feel the FHFB is intentionally keeping credit unions off the FHLB Boards but pointed out that the Federal Reserve makes an effort to have a credit union representative on its Consumer Advisory Council. “The point of a democracy is to protect minority votes and minority voices,” Dunn explained. “So in corporate law, there is generally a mechanism for the minority interest to at least have an opportunity and a chance to get elected and in effect the way the Federal Home Loan Bank System is set up now, there is no way that a credit union can be elected because the banks simply are not going to put them on the board.” Coastal Federal Credit Union Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ralph Reardon testified on behalf of CUNA at the FHFB hearing on the election process. Reardon has run twice for the Atlanta FHLB Board and lost. He also failed to get appointed.