NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz reaffirmed her support for supplemental capital for credit unions at WOCCU's annual meeting. Credit unions' need for capital reform can only heighten. But permitting the NCUA to define prompt corrective action buckets requires action by Congress.

Once Washington moves past the debt ceiling mess, credit unions need effective lobbying action on the issue of capital reform. The NCUA now has two Capitol Hill professionals, Democrats Todd Harper and former Texas league lobbyist Republican Buddy Gill. The issue is a real safety and soundness concern for the NCUA, so while the agency technically doesn't "lobby" Congress, it can provide guidance on matters such as capital reform.

The national trade associations will also need to up their lobbying game. Credit unions haven't won anything proactive for the industry in more than a decade. Ironically that win was what also threw PCA (and the business lending cap!) around credit unions' necks like a dead albatross. PCA for credit unions was intended to provide credit unions parallel capital protection to the banks as imposed in the FDIC Improvement Act. However, one huge problem for the NCUA and credit unions was that Congress decided to define PCA requirements for credit unions rather than allowing the NCUA to do it even through the FDIC has that flexibility.