ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Commenters on NCUA's proposed regulation regarding the disclosure of executive compensation in a voluntary merger generally agreed that such decisions should be left up to the board of the credit union.

Credit union commenters on this NCUA proposal stated that the agency should go back to the drawing board or, better yet, nix the plan altogether. At least, NCUA should wait on the recommendations of its own Outreach Task Force on the broader matter of disclosure of executive compensation.

"NAFCU firmly believes that federal credit unions should have the ability to fully exercise their business judgment to merge should it be in their members' best interest," NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Dan Berger wrote. "NAFCU also believes that the integrity of the merger process is imperative. The decision to merge must be made free from undue influences; indeed, transparency is crucial to ensuring that interests of the members are paramount to a merger decision. While we recognize that the proposed rule is designed to ensure that executive self-dealing will not be a motivating factor in merger deliberations, NAFCU is extremely concerned that the proposal may have a chilling effect on the right of federal credit unions to make reasonable business decisions to benefit their members without achieving this goal."