I can't comment on NCUA's appeals process but I surely agree with the NCUA that it is not wise to allow credit unions to publish their CAMEL ratings.
When the banks failed in the early 1930s, a fifteen minute fireside chat by President Roosevelt put the nation at ease so that they could trust all banks with their money. Banks reopened three days later and all turned out well. None was put above the other in regards to safety of funds.
When Congress formed the NCUSIF in 1970, they did so boldly stating, "No member of a federally insured credit union has ever lost one penny of insured savings." They strengthened the whole credit union movement.
When the Secretary of the Treasury called the CEOs of all the major banks to Washington a few years ago and told them they were all receiving $25 billion from the Treasury, he did not allow any bank, even those who did not need the money, to refuse it. He did not want to imply to the country that any one bank was stronger or weaker than the others.
It all boils down to building and maintaining faith in the entire system. Any act that reduces overall faith in the system by putting more faith in one institution than another may weaken a weak link to the point where people question the whole system. Such a thought should not come into the public's consciousness.
Publishing CAMEL ratings, in effect, having the government state one credit union is better than another, would be one such deleterious act, which the NCUA wisely prohibits.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
