The town hall held by the NCUA last week was much livelier than the previous one. It could be the proximity of the participants to Washington that brings the cacophony of opinions. While the tenor wasn't always pleasant, the democracy in action was.

The full room pulsed with intense debate of the issues from the corporate credit union fiasco to alternative capital. Some attendees let their opinions be heard that the NCUA, the corporate boards and others dropped the ball.

This is all true, and no one has properly explained any of it because they're all going around covering their own tails. The NCUA has shared its basic framework for the new corporate regulation expected to come out at the board's November meeting, which will address board member requirements and concentration risk among other things we have reported before. The NCUA has not come out and said: This is where we messed up, and this is how we're rectifying it. This need to happen to put the past behind, as NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz has articulated.