CUNA announced today it is forming a 12-member "Next Steps Corporate Credit Union Working Group" it hopes will provide an organizational framework so credit unions can maintain access to traditional corporate services at a reasonable cost.
President Dan Mica will announce members of the group later this week, said spokesman Pat Keefe.
Even though the NCUA isn't likely to announce final corporate regulations or a plan to separate toxic assets from corporates until June, Senior Vice President Mary Dunn said CUNA's member credit unions have made it clear they won't recapitalize until investment risk is separated from core services like payment and settlement.
As a result, the current corporate business model is destined to change, regardless of how much the NCUA compromises on proposed regulations. Credit unions want to prepare for those changes, and attempt to keep services corporates may not be able to provide within the industry, she said.
"It's always been CUNA's view these things should be controlled by credit unions, so they can control their own destiny," Keefe said.
Dunn added that corporates, their CUSOs, and CUSOs owned by natural person credit unions are all regulated by the NCUA, which keeps them further insulated from competitive banking forces.
