ARLINGTON, Va. - NCUA's sluggish SEG application process is the main concern of NAFCU members, NAFCU President Fred R. Becker, Jr. said in his first formal press interview February 15, but other issues such as NCUA budget increases, H.R. 1151 and financial services modernization implementation, and bankruptcy reform also loom large on the association's radar screen.
The high-energy NAFCU president who hit the ground running on January 31 has already-in furtherance of NAFCU's vaunted, direct representation mandate-communicated via e-mail with half of his 1,017 membership and has heard back from about 200 of them. And right now, he says, concern over the FCU charter expansion process is hands-down uppermost-more so than prompt corrective action, bankruptcy reform, NCUA's budget bloat, or even a possible erosion of the federal charter-on the minds of members.
"Because the process is slow, because the process is not uniform throughout the country...," Becker explained, allowing that general slowness is the main culprit, "it's affecting credit unions in the short-term in their ability to take in other employment groups. And in the essence I think it's causing a certain amount of frustration within the federal credit union community."
Becker, who has now met with all NCUA Board members and select members of Congress, said he planned to send a letter to the NCUA Board on the subject within a week-and to continue his signature "high touch" communication with members on this and any subject throughout his tenure as CEO.
Called variously a "quick study" and a "Swiss Army knife" by observers for his smarts and varied experience set, Becker was quick to recognize and play to NAFCU's direct representation strong suit as the key to the association's appeal and continued viability, and he wasted no time demonstrating that he knew what the missing link was in optimizing this attribute.
"My vision (for NAFCU) would be to help credit unions with the use of technology," Becker said at a press breakfast the day before the interview. "Technology is going to be cheaper, and therefore there would be the opportunity for credit unions-even the smallest of credit unions-to effectively compete in the 21st Century in the market and leverage technology.
"With technology," he continued, "there's no reason why the small guy can't start to compete and think about what the big guy is doing, and by new and different ways do it. In addition, I hope to enhance our direct communication tools-more direct, more hard-hitting. That's the nice thing about a thousand members (NAFCU's membership)....That sounds like a large number, but it's not an overwhelming number. That's a number that you can communicate with. It takes (a little) time, but you can communicate directly with and get their voices and opinions and concerns heard."
Becker was talking about small credit unions competing in a contracting post-Glass-Steagall Act marketplace, but he could as well have been talking about NAFCU's competition with 11,000-member-strong CUNA over FCU allegiance.
But Becker's approach also makes provision for the "people-ware" factor in his hardware/software formula for NAFCU's future, as he plans internally to emphasize adequate workplace provisioning and a "cooperative, teamwork approach" to association operations.
"Do you have the tools necessary to do your job and are they the right tools?" he said rhetorically, having already imparted that, despite 25 years in the Navy, he prefers to manage in a "cooperative, think tank" sort of way. "And if not, tell me what they are, and we'll see if we can fix that for you."
Externally, however, Becker-who arrives at work at 6:45 a.m. and leaves at 8:30 p.m. and likes to jog during lunch hour-sees several storm clouds on the horizon.
"I've developed a number of issues that are of concern to me and concern to credit unions," he said at the press breakfast. "Among them are enhancing the value of the federal charter, prompt corrective action, and pressure to serve those of lesser economic means."
Though reluctant to conclude-despite preliminary figures showing that there were 316 fewer FCUs at the end of 1999 and that, of the 29 mergers in 1999, only four were state-to-federal-that the federal charter is currently under attack, Becker nevertheless considers the development something to be closely monitored.
"Conversions to state charter are certainly on the screen," he noted. "I don't think it's at an alarming rate or something to be overly concerned about, but, at the same time, it is something we have to watch."
He explained that, if indeed there is a problem here, solutions may be found either at the regulatory level or, if need be, at the congressional level.
As for prompt corrective action and NCUA's low-income member service survey, NAFCU's positions on them are, respectively, those of wary skepticism and downright opposition.
"First of all, PCA is the regulation (and) is what NCUA will do....It doesn't mean that the final rule won't get changed at some point in the future. I think we'll continue to monitor it and, as it comes into play...if there are issues that develop out of that, we'll, of course, raise them and become involved in them."
And then there is bankruptcy reform legislation which currently awaits reconciliation of House (H.R. 833) and Senate (S. 625) bill versions.
NAFCU is at odds with CUNA over the larger trade association's tentative support of the Senate version's limited concession to CU demands for an exemption from judicial review of reaffirmation (repayment) agreements-and has announced it will not support legislation unless it incorporates the full House wording on the issue.
Calling the Senate version "not a workable bill," Becker added, "I think we're coming to that realization among the other associations."
But on some issues such as the cooperative/competitive dynamic within credit union commerce and that subject's derivative exclusionary clause debate, Becker who, understandably is still getting his "sea legs" on credit union issues, opts to pass for the time being. He did, however, have some general thoughts on the theme.
"I think a cooperative role needs to continue (in the CU community). At the same time the world is changing. This is the 21st Century and...the financial services act is bringing different issues to bear-like competition and thinner margins within the financial services industry. So it would be a case of what changes needed to be made in order to accommodate that for the future, if any...."
And, in the interview's solitary instance of a hackle-raising question for an otherwise genial subject, Becker dismissed any talk of merger flirtations with CUNA a a topic not fit for further discussion.
Finally, on the raging "flab-gate" fracas over NCUA's budget, Becker expressed hopes that NCUA would return to a previous practice (discontinued with the D'Amours' era) of consulting with the trade associations as its budget was developed. "The budget is a concern of NAFCU," he said. "It's like a tax to credit unions. I hope next year we'll be able to become more involved in the process (and) watch the process as it goes through." He added that NCUA defended retaining its 34 Y2K-designated examiners under the rubric that they were not specifically hired for Y2K work.
For now, however, Becker, who is handy around the house and a fan of Tom Clancy novels, appears focused on getting his own organization through the shake-down cruise of accepting another hand on the tiller, and on improving the aim of NAFCU's direct representation main battery.
"I want to reach out and touch the members as much as we can," he emphasized. "We're a direct membership association." -
gmcorrigan@mindspring.com
