"We have heard from credit unions a lot over the last few months that many are finding their examiners and exams to have been a lot more difficult than they were previously," said Mary Dunn, senior vice president for CUNA.
The new website, which includes a link to a survey the association prepared on the topic, is an attempt to quantify the data and get a more accurate picture of the scope of the problems credit unions are reporting, Dunn explained.
Credit union complaints about examinations and examiners are certainly nothing new, at some level, Dunn acknowledged, but she countered that historically credit unions have generally had good relationships with their examiners. Now credit unions have reported that there is ambivalence in exam reports about whether a course of action that an examiner advocates is something he or she is recommending or something they are requiring. Credit unions have also complained examiners have been, in general, less willing to work with credit unions and more willing to dictate actions.
Dunn likened some of the problems the association has been hearing about to a previous era when credit unions were told, often in rapid succession, to both increase its allowance for loan losses and that its allowance was too high.
"We just to get a better understanding from this confidential survey of what exactly is going on," Dunn said.
