Everything Has Been Exposed: Time to Call It Out

I’m writing this under the influence … of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Californication” album. Why is this important? Because it was recommended to me. And any change to the daily cramped routine of shelter-at-home is 100% welcomed. My tight rotation of digital music lately feels like a worn out cassette tape; everything feels warped and tangled in the tape reels, and the tape head is in desperate need of cleaning.

Retro references aside, this leads me to my point: What’s old is new and what’s new is retro.

Remember when there were regulations in place that required in-person annual meetings? Remember when the idea of remote online/virtual notarizations was just never going to happen? Remember when President Trump referred to the coronavirus as a ploy by Democrats to get him pushed out of office? Remember when 1,000-piece puzzles were only done because you found a box in a remote rental cabin during vacation? All of these “remember when” examples actually became relevant in recent days. The NCUA reversed its stance on in-person annual meetings. States are now quickly adopting new laws allowing remote online and virtual notarizations at financial institutions. And our president has at least, in his own way, come to see this pandemic as a real thing. And now celebrities are posting videos of puzzle challenges. These are such strange days.

To expand on this one political point above, I want to let our readers know that during our team’s research to build the “State of Credit Union Branches” heat map, we went through more than 4,000 individual credit union branches spread out across all 50 states to get an overview of who was and wasn’t taking social distancing steps and shutting down branch activity. In the initial days of researching, we discovered that the credit union industry appeared to not be immune to political influences. Our findings showed that a majority of those branches that had a higher rate of closing were happening in Blue States. And those that weren’t (hello, Oklahoma) were in Red States. As a team, we were really surprised because this was a biological issue, not a political one. As the days wore on and the pandemic spread, we saw those Red States begin to adopt social distancing measures and close at least some branches. To this day, as of this writing, there are still large pockets of the United States where it appears credit union executives are following the lead of their governor’s political wishes instead of understanding what’s at risk – the health and safety of their members and employees.

Other than looking at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s website multiple times each day to check the state-by-state projections of the coronavirus, I’ve lately spent most days checking updated regulations that have all of a sudden turned into it’s-not-that-important-anymore rules.

Listen, I’m all for regulations. A good portion of them were put in place because of bad actors. There are several, though, that are based on logic that applied to 1974 thinking, when you could smoke on Braniff International Airways flights. As a kid I’d shove my gum in those tiny ashtrays inside the armrest.

As the grave outlook on our country’s health and economy began to sink in, the NCUA announced it was going to conduct credit union examinations offsite until further notice. Chairman Rodney Hood announced that credit unions must be permitted to help members and staff during the coronavirus crisis and shouldn’t be distracted by requests for information by the agency. He said, “During this time, the NCUA will limit the burden imposed on credit unions so that they can focus on providing uninterrupted service to their members.” The NCUA also changed its requirement that credit unions must hold in-person annual meetings. I think these decisions are all good calls for an agency that has basically become a black hole for questions and Freedom of Information Act filings to fall into with very few answers coming out.

I understand there is a baseline for normal business operation procedures and rules, and then there are crisis standards that can be enacted to make your regulatory lives easier.

To their credit, CUNA and NAFCU have been pretty vocal with nearly daily letter submissions to the NCUA and congressional leaders asking for rule adjustments, full rule suspensions and emergency financial help for credit unions.

As this crisis drags on, I get the feeling that we, as citizens, as leaders, as credit union members, can call BS on basically every rule, regulation and political decision ever made up to this point.

This COVID-19 world has exposed nearly all of why we do what we do and why we are what we are as an industry and country. It appears all of that has been based on how good lobbyists are for banks and businesses. Who lives, who dies. What businesses are considered essential, what businesses should be closed. For instance, in Williamson County, Texas, if you run a small business, let’s say a florist shop, you are closed and considered a non-essential business. But, if you are a Mattress Firm or Bass Pro Shop, you are open for business and absolutely considered an essential business. Who makes these decisions and based on what criteria? Politicians who want to make sure their reelection funds stay healthy. There’s a lot to be angry and frustrated about these days.

After several discussions with credit union leaders, I feel like no one is really thinking differently.

Historic barometers, which I like to refer to as “retro thinking,” are being used to describe and predict what is happening and will happen with our economy, credit unions and jobs. This is like trying to use a cassette tape to ladle soup into a bowl. It just doesn’t make sense. There is no historical precedent to base our situation on. We are creating history at this moment that the next pandemic and recession will be based on. And I’d expect it’ll be contextualized as, “Well, at least it wasn’t that clusterfest of 2020.”

There is no event in history to help us map out our actions and/or inactions. We’re watching Congress and others try to use old solutions for extremely new problems. It’s not going to work. What will work? Tossing out everything we know and starting from this moment forward. Everything has changed and we should start acting that way. If four planes on 9/11 caused our lives to change, what is what we are experiencing right now going to change in our everyday lives? The only word I can come up with is, everything. Think differently please.

Right now, our country is entirely exposed to every weakness. Find those weaknesses, fix them and apply new ideas to help everyone, and not just Mattress Firm and Bass Pro Shop.

Michael Ogden is editor-in-chief for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.