While the NCUA's Officeof Minority and Women Inclusion was created to ensure diversityin management, employment and business activities, the two-year olddivision has much more room to have an impact.

That's according to the African American Credit Union Coalition, which just releasedsix recommendations for the NCUA to consider. Among them, providinga further breakdown analysis of minority and women-owned businesscontractors and suppliers with regard to the percentage ofminority-owned businesses versus women-ownedbusinesses. 

The AACUC also suggested engaging trade organizations to promotediversity as a credit union best practice via conference sessionsand include in roundtables meetings a more comprehensiverepresentation of credit union trade and advocacy groups.

The coalition also recommended establishing an SEC counterpartrule requiring credit unions to report on call reports theirdiversity policies and the methods used to diversify workforces,including boards and senior management.

Through its OMWI, the NCUA should also consider encouraging theproactive recruitment of qualified minorities and women withrespect to the strategic needs and goals of the agency and creditunions, the AACUC said. This can be accomplished by utilizing thetalent banks or biographical databases of credit union advocacygroups such as the AACUC or NLCUP for workforce placementreferrals.

Finally, the AACUC suggested increasing transparency ofprocurement process for goods and services contracted for and bythe NCUA in areas such as asset management, forinstance. 

In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act established a mandate that requiredthe NCUA and other agencies to create OMWIs.  

“The AACUC commends and supports the NCUA's OMWI in its effortsto comply with the Dodd-Frank Act mandates.  However, theagency must go further. The AACUC recognizes and advocates fordiversity as a means to foster new approaches and freshperspectives toward achieving credit union perpetuity forgenerations to come,” the AACUC wrote in a position paper,“Dodd-Frank, Diversity and the Credit Union Movement.”

In January 2011, the NCUA opened its OMWI in compliance with theDodd-Frank Act and submitted to Congress its first report asrequired by the law.  

In its report released in April 2012, the NCUA said it needed to domore with its efforts to hire more minorities. Among the findings,of the $37.9 million paid to contractors in 2011, $3.1 million or8.1% of those contracts were paid to minority and women-ownedbusinesses. 

The NCUA also awarded $49.6 million in supplier contracts ofwhich $6.8 million or 13.75% were awarded to minority orwomen-owned businesses. Four businesses were involved in the $28.3billion corporate credit union system sale of securities.

The NCUA said it implemented two-day training in supplierdiversity for agency employees involved in the procurementprocess. 

However, the agency did identify as a most significantchallenge, the hiring of qualified minorities and women, morespecifically pertaining to the employment of Hispanics at alllevels and other minorities at CU-12 and above grade levels. TheNCUA also instituted call report utilization to determine if creditunions have a diversity policy or program in effect.

“The AACUC's mission is to strengthen the movement throughmentorship and leadership,” said Sheilah Montgomery, AACUCchairwoman. “Dodd-Frank's diversity provision is in line with ourposition. We're looking to be kind of a referral. We want to be aresource for fresh ideas.”

To further make its case, the AACUC pointed to the SEC sayingthe agency has taken affirmative steps in implementing itsassessment of the diversity policies and practices of publiclytraded companies and their boards.  For instance, the SECapproved a rule that would require disclosure of whether, and if sohow, a nominating committee considers diversity in identifyingcandidates for director.

The SEC also requires companies to disclose if the nominatingcommittee or the board has a policy with regard to theconsideration of diversity in identifying nominees, how this policyis implemented and how the nominating committee or the boardassesses the effectiveness of its policy.  In addition,the rule also requires the disclosure of this data to be reportedon corporate proxy and informational statements.

Mark Brantley, AACUC advocacy chairman, said in gatheringresearch for the coalition's position, he discovered that the SEChad adopted a rule requiring companies to report diversityinitiatives on their proxy statements.

“Just in my own experience, there's not a lot of diversity. Wewant to strengthen the credit union movement and that's the reasonwe embarked on this provision from the Dodd-Frank Act,” Brantleysaid. 

To that end, the AACUC was scheduled to meet with CUNAPresident/CEO Dick Cheney and NAFCU President Fred Becker at thecoalition's networking meeting held during CUNA's GovernmentalAffairs Conference last week in Washington, Montgomery said. Inaddition, the AACUC is hoping to have a conversation soon withTawana James, the director of NCUA's OMWI, she added.

Brantley said while the intent behind diversity is to have moreinclusion of minorities and women, he acknowledged that there aresome credit unions may consider this a challenge because of theirlimited access to certain groups based on where a credit union islocated. 

In those instances, more diversity on boards and through skilland expertise are viable alternatives, he suggested.

“I truly believe that there is a conservation to be had but wehaven't sat down to have it,” Montgomery said. “This position willstart the conversation. We have so many things that we align with.Through this conversation, I believe we're going to createsomething great for the industry.”