A recent Filene Research Institute survey sponsored by CUES reveals that when it comes to credit union board governance it's a work in progress that needs to be addressed today not tomorrow.
The Tracking the Relationship between Credit Union Governance and Performance survey found that while volunteer credit union boards display a broad range of competence and engagement, there are several areas ranging from time management and director evaluations, to continuing education and CEO evaluations that continue to be a challenge.
As far as credit union financial performance drivers, continuing board education and the board/CEO relationship stand out. According to the survey, the only governance practice that yielded a strong positive correlation with actual credit union ROA performance was whether boards felt they had an effective CEO evaluation in place.
"Credit union governance is one of those issues that never seems urgent, but thinking about it and improving it just might be a more important issue than anything else we face right now," says Mark Meyer, CEO of the Filene Research Institute.
