ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NCUA Board Member Mark McWatters, who voted against the NCUA's 2015 operating budget, said allowing the public to comment on the budget proposal would not compromise the independence of the board members' votes.
"I was accused by the Chair of supporting an approach that would invite 'regulatory capture.' The Chair stated that permitting members of the credit union community to address the Board on the record in a public meeting on the budget would somehow compromise the independence of our votes. Really?" McWatters said in a statement after the meeting.
CU Times interviewed McWatters after the NCUA Board's Thursday meeting.
"Under that logic, I gather it's ok for the Chair to meet with Dan Berger [among others] to discuss the budget [among other items]. It's, apparently, also ok to answer Berger's letter regarding transparency issues with the budget. But, for reasons that escape me, it's not ok for Berger to address the Board on the budget in a public meeting before the media and the cameras and the microphones," he added.
During the board meeting Thursday, McWatters said the board's job is to set the standard of transparency rather than follow other financial regulators.
NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz said to McWatters, "I really don't understand what level of transparency we don't have that would have provided the transparency you are requesting other than having the trade associations actually come in and sign our budget for us."
"I did not say that. You know I did not say that," McWatters responded.
"That's basically what the bottom line is," Matz said back.
McWatters explained why he voted against the budget proposal in a video interview after Thursday's meeting. He said the general public should be given a sufficient opportunity to comment on the proposal before the full board vote.
"Perhaps if the public saw it ahead of time then I would be able to see it ahead of time also because you must understand that the board action memorandum make their way to my office very, very late in the process that I'm working on information that to me may just be a few days old so there is less time to reaction to it. I would also like more time to react to the meeting," McWatters said.
"But I need to be careful in saying that. I've had several meetings with Mary Ann [Woodson] and with Rendell – the outgoing CFO and the new CFO – they have been tremendous. I've made any number of comments regarding transparency."
McWatters continued, "The budget, the BAM, if you go back and compare the last several years has been pretty much a static document except for changes in the numbers but I raised so many issues on transparency, the BAM is much longer now, the website is being reconfigured and a lot more are being put in."
NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz told CU Times the NCUA is much more transparent with its financials than credit unions.
"Credit unions by and large release their financial statements, period, end of discussion and any discussion of having federal chartered credit unions file 990s is usually met with alarm and horror and they don't release the most basic information about the salaries of their top management," she said.
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