Another tax increase, a thunderstorm right after getting your car washed, and a steady rise in gasoline prices to over $2 a gallon, are among the things that would be on most everyone's list of things that are inevitable. But there is also an inevitable list involving credit unions. For example, some of us have been suspicious from day one regarding the real motivation behind a charter conversion that turns a credit union into a bank. From the start, it seemed inevitable that at least in some cases, an ulterior motive for converting to a bank would eventually surface. It has! Early on we asked questions. "For who's benefit?" we asked. "Why, for the sake of our members, of course," we were told. So who can argue with that? After all, members own the credit union and if they benefit by giving their blessing, who is to say that converting to a bank is a bad thing? "But," we cautioned, "do the members really understand (or care?) what they are being asked to approve?" Surprise! Surprise! The inevitable has happened. I.G.A. FCU, one of 11 former CUs now possessing a bank charter, has gone from being a medium size credit union serving its members to a stock-driven, takeover target. It now appears that its management and directors could become considerably wealthier when it all shakes out. As the who's-in-control controversy has heated up, the stock price has also gone up. Guess who owns large chunks of the increasingly valuable stock? If you guessed the chairman, members of the board, and the CU CEO, you guessed correctly. Tell me again how all of this maneuvering has benefited the members of at least this one converted credit union! And by the way, tell me how all the bickering over credit union ownership and strategic direction is benefiting the good image of all credit unions. A couple of other things are also now clearly inevitable. On the negative side, the greedy among us will see this as an opportunity to feather their own nests at their credit union by jumping on the conversion bandwagon. On the positive side, the ethical among us will proceed much more cautiously, if at all, but certainly not until member benefits are guaranteed first and foremost. Many credit union officials who could get rich will decide not to. It is also inevitable that today's page one headlines, like the I.G.A. FCU fiasco, no matter how intense a news event becomes, will gradually move to inside news pages. Eventually it will disappear out of the news loop entirely. It is inevitable that no matter how inflammatory certain actions are, they sooner or later fade away due to frustration, shifting priorities, and eventually a lack of interest. The moral of the story seems to be that when you are the focal point of controversial news, just wait it out. A current case in point is the well-documented, so-called NCUA hiring scandal. Not only are most credit union folks already weary of reading about what former NCUA executive director Karl Hoyle did, or didn't do, when, and to whom, they are also already losing interest in the rash of investigations, demotions, monetary penalties, and resulting staff restructuring at NCUA revolving around the "false duty station" actions that apparently have been commonplace at NCUA for years. Perhaps NAFCU's new CEO, Fred Becker, has it right when he describes the personnel mess at the federal regulator as an internal thing that needs to be dealt with decisively and quickly, as it has been. Credit union management and volunteers have enough really important matters closer to home on their credit union plates. Need more proof of how inevitable it is that today's headlines fade into oblivion? Remember the controversy surrounding the once-new NCUA headquarters building? Has anyone checked it out lately? And who can forget the turmoil revolving around Bob Swan's unceremonious departure from the NCUA Board? Bob Who? Or how the CapCorp situation was going to get resolved with NCUA having egg on it's face. Didn't happen. It was inevitable. So is the anticipated outcome of the ongoing flap involving the Polish and Slavic FCU. It will soon fall off the front page as will such other stories as privacy issues, not because credit union folks don't think they are important. They just grow bored with them and turn their attention to issues that appear to have a more obvious and important connection to themselves and their credit union. Wasn't it also inevitable that a new industry called payday lenders would pop up overnight and grow like topsy as some credit unions turned their backs on this market segment? Where there is a need, there is always a way, even if that way is outrageously harmful to those that can least afford it. On the other hand, when even credit unions rack up loan turndown rates of 30 to 40%, where else can those who turn to payday lenders as a last resort go? A loan shark by any other name is still a loan shark! Perhaps someone should invent something called a credit union? The list of what can be considered inevitable is long and getting longer. It is inevitable that the number of credit unions changing charters will accelerate, that mega-mergers among the very largest credit unions will start to take place shortly, and that even more CUs will change their names. Also, it is inevitable that the number of alliances of all types impacting credit unions will increase dramatically, that the credit union operations emphasis will be even more technology driven, that another rash of new vendors will discover the credit union market, that credit union fees (including ATM surcharges) will continue to escalate to cover costs, and that the credit union industry will sooner rather than later become as influential in Washington as the AARP and the NRA. Some things are simply inevitable.
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