Regulators often work to eliminate risk. And, there's the rub. At its core, innovation is about risk. And the key part about CUSOs is that they let the credit union industry take these risks collaboratively, minimizing the risk to any single institution. Let's be honest with ourselves. It will take a significant amount of innovation in the coming decade for credit unions to remain relevant to consumers. This is about transformational change, not incremental change.

Credit unions need to offer the types of products and services that resonate with younger consumers, consumers in emerging markets like the Latino market, and small businesses. These are different than the products we have offered in the past. If history is our guide, CUSOs are the most likely to bring these innovations to the credit union market in a wide-scale manner.

But innovation doesn't happen overnight. Innovation can sometimes be a bit messy as you adapt to changing markets and work to define your long-term value proposition. Any new product, service or business needs time to become an established player.

In reality, this often means losing money as a business starts up. In a world where the NCUA is regulating CUSOs, you have to wonder how much time they'd allow to pass before they would feel compelled to close it down.

In my mind, it is not a huge leap to believe that while this proposed regulation is intended to manage safety and soundness considerations, it could easily position the NCUA to take over and run a CUSO.

That begs the question do they have the expertise? All CUSOs are not created equal. Just in our family of companies at Affiliates Management Co., there is a card processing company, a compliance and public affairs company, a Hispanic-focused consulting company, a business lending CUSO and a credit card agent issuer.

Perhaps, more importantly, NCUA already has access to CUSO books and records. When a credit union loans, participates or invests in a CUSO, the NCUA has the authority to provide oversight to the transaction. The argument for the proposed regulation is more transparency. The information is already at hand, so what more do they need?

I fundamentally believe that this proposal is born out of reaction to management issues and not regulatory issues. This is not to dismiss the severity of the problems that arose in various places in the country during the past few years, but there are few signs that this indicative of a larger problem. It certainly does not rise to the level of a systemic risk.

In the coming weeks, I know there will be much more debate about this topic. But I believe that this new regulation will not protect the credit union industry from future threats, but instead stifle much needed partnerships and innovation that provide the competitive products and services that current (and future) credit union members deserve. 

Jeff Russell is president/CEO of TMG Financial Services.