The NCUA announced at its July board meeting that credit unions’assessment for the Temporary Corporate Credit Union StabilizationFund would be a mere eight basis points. The total bill for creditunions comes to $701 million, or approximately $100,000 on averageper credit union, for 2013. It’s the lowest level it’s been sincethe inception of the TCCUSF.

At the same time, the NCUA touted cutting $2.5 million from itsbudget, saving credit unions about $400 on average. The positivespin does not come close to outweighing the negative, but it’s astart.

While credit unions are having to lay employees off or cut backtheir hours, or even cut member services to hit their numbers, theNCUA added yet another employee this year. It has an endless supplyof funding: your credit union’s money. And if that’s not enough,it’s backed by the full faith and credit of the federalgovernment.

Larry Fazio, NCUA director of the Office of Examination andInsurance, tipped his hand that possibly the NCUA Board couldconsider slowing or even stopping, at least temporarily, theassessments entirely. The mention at the board meeting was anexcellent sign for credit unions’ bottom lines that the agency isacknowledging the light at the end of the tunnel.

Naturally, Chip Filson had something to say on the eve of theassessment announcement. He urged the NCUA to demonstrate itself as a “thoughtful and learning”agency, and delay the 2013 corporate assessment. He pointed outthat the financial statements of the five corporates that werebridged showed reserves of approximately one-quarter of thetroubled assets, or $11.6 billion of the $43.8 billion.

The market said the assets were only worth $28 billion,resulting in an over-collateralization of $15.8 billion, or 56%more than the NCUA Guaranteed Note balances, according to Filson.What he now questions is whether the 2010 assumptions used tocreate this program work in 2013. No, he argues that prior to theassessment the corporate fund is collateralized at 149% between the$27.3 billion in investments, $4.1 billion in previous premiums andthe $6.4 billion in assessments.

Yet, the assessment remains. And we all recall that feeling inthe pit of our stomachs in 2010 when the U.S. Central, WesCorp,Members United, Southwest and Constitution corporates were seized. It’s rare that credit unions ratehigh-profile coverage in The Wall Street Journal, but theydid then. The confusion even among mainstream business reportersabout credit unions was rampant and problematic, for example, TheFinancial Times reported, “Rescue of U.S. credit unions launched.”In the broadest possible sense, I supposed that’s true, and thearticle does immediately explain the difference, but think of howmany readers didn’t make it past that headline.

Headlines like, “Standoff ends, search beginsfor credit union CEO wanted for fraud,” in the local Ohio newsaround Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union are why credit unions need todrop the flying-under-the-radar philosophy. No matter what you doat your credit union, there’s nothing stopping the news that acredit union CEO turned fugitive-who the FBI wanted poster notes“should be considered armed and dangerous [and] may have suicidaltendencies”-will be kept from your members. (Given that Alex Spirikaitis ran a $23.6 million credit union, it will alsomake it hard for the NCUA to exempt small credit unions fromcertain rules and requirements.)

As I wrote last week, reputational risk can be bigger than thedollars involved, and public relations are critical.

Online anyone can know anything in the second it happens, from awebsite posting to a breaking news tweet. Public relations is notsomething individual credit unions can afford to avoid any longer.Just because you aren’t involved in social media doesn’t mean yourmembers are not. It could be disastrous if your credit union startsgetting calls about misinformation that’s already spread tothousands in social media and the credit union has no idea whatthey’re talking about.

A strategic public relations plan takes a lot of legwork. Itincludes cultivating solid working relationships over time withyour local news outlets, trade publications (of course), and even afew national news outlets. When the worst happens, such as internalfraud or robbery, credit unions must know what to do and say andwho will say it, during and following a crisis. And for goodnesssake, include your PR executive’s contact information on yourwebsite and press releases.