The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Wednesday issued its report on corporate credit unions and the NCUA. And the report's title tells the story: "Earlier Actions Are Needed to Better Address Troubled Credit Unions."

Called for in the National Credit Union Authority Clarification Act of 2011, the GAO report examined the why's of the collapse of multiple corporate credit unions and what NCUA might have done differently.

The key opinion in the GAO document: "GAO found poor investment and business strategies contributed to the corporate failures. Specifically, the failed corporates over concentrated their investments in private-label, mortgage-backed securities and invested substantially more in private-label MBS than corporates that did not fail. GAO also found that poor management was the primary reason the 85 [natural person] credit unions failed. In addition, NCUA's Office of Inspector General has reported that NCUA's examination and enforcement processes did not result in strong and timely actions to avert the failure of these institutions."