MAUI, Hawaii — Volunteers attended a session at The Paragon Group's Volunteer Leadership Institute entitled "Financial Essentials for Volunteers," but took the session in many different directions.
Presenter of the pre-conference bonus session, Bob Schumacher, retired CEO of the $82 million MountainCrest Credit Union, covered the basics of the balance sheet and much more. The highly interactive session took various turns as the audience peppered him with questions. One of the hottest discussions centered on examinations. The inconsistency of the NCUA was an oft-repeated concern. Situations were shared where examiners told a credit union to form a committee to oversee all the loans running through the credit union, and the next year asked why the credit union was doing that.
Volunteers from a California credit union explained that the NCUA and state regulator's conclusions didn't jibe and as all three parties sat down to discuss the matter, the two regulators moved farther apart. The state examiners found this credit union in better standing than the NCUA did.
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A representative from a Washington credit union questioned the motivation behind the agency's director education regulations. He stated that he absolutely recognized the value of training but having the agency tell him he needed it stuck in his craw. Still others said the requirement only made credit unions as a whole stronger and provided greater protection against credit unions that might not be so diligent on their own.
Aside from the regulations, audience members debated the merits of peer comparisons based solely on asset size. One attendee stated that despite the local conditions, a credit union needs to keep the lights on so the bottom line is the bottom line. Others saw greater value in adding different factors to the mix such as geography, field of membership and business focus to determine which institutions they would compare their credit union to.
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