Just when I was ready to crownmyself Queen Jawdropper 2013 after last week's column, “CreditUnions Are Knocking on Death's Door,” Slate published a story Dec.11 that one-upped me.

I'd known for a couple of months that reporter Daniel Wagner wasinvestigating the cozy relationship between new NCUA Board MemberRick Metsger and the Northwest Credit Union Association, and byextension, CUNA. That story wasn't the first time that relationshipraised eyebrows.

Credit Union Times broke the news of Metsger'simpending nomination because of information that leaked out of theNWCUA, referring to the potential nominee as “our guy.”

Metsger's history with the NWCUA was on display during hisconfirmation hearing, too. As is common during hearings on CapitolHill, senators on the Banking Committee had to put the event onhold while they voted on bills. During those breaks, Metsger hadtwo handlers: Todd Harper, NCUA director of public andcongressional affairs, and NWCUA CEO Troy Stang. I was stillrelatively new to covering Capitol Hill, but even I knew Stang'sclose range was odd.

Then, I'm told when news of Metsger's confirmation broke,executives attending a dinner at the American Association of CreditUnion League's summer meeting in Boston cheered, high-fived eachother and gleefully declared that “their guy” was on the NCUAboard.

Not the best start for a regulator.

I considered writing my own story on the subject, in an attemptto scoop Wagner, but after investigating the relationship, Icouldn't find that Metsger had done anything illegal. I haven'tworked with him long, but Metsger seems like a pretty honest andgenuine guy. His relationship with the league may be inappropriate,but to report that as news would come off as sensational and borderon subjective.

Which brings me to Wagner's story, which does comes off assensational and subjective.

Contrary to what many believe, I don't think Wagner is a hiredgun for the banking lobby. I wouldn't be surprised to learn he wastipped off by those folks, but he's no friend of bankers, either.In fact, he won two reporting awards in 2010 for storiesinvestigating banks' use of bailout money and then-TreasurySecretary Tim Geithner's cozy banker relationships.

Wagner writes for the left-leaning Center for Public Integrity,and despite his impressive resume, he presented the rather naïveopinion that regulators should only regulate industry, and notsupport it. In fact, balancing those conflicting responsibilitiesis one of regulators' toughest tasks. Regulators that don'tconsider how a rule will burden an industry will eventually findthemselves out of a job, because they'll regulate the industry todeath. (Are you listening, CFPB?)

I'm also puzzled by Wagner's issue with NCUA board membershaving recent credit union experience. Just imagine if they didn't.Seems to me that would be a bigger concern.

Despite these issues, however, Wagner did make some very goodpoints in his article. First and foremost is the contrast betweenhow the credit unions present themselves to the public and onCapitol Hill, compared with reality.

The credit union industry is no longer a movement. There's nosweeping effort to charter more credit unions. Rather, mergers aredecreasing the ranks. Yes, the number of members is growing, butBank Transfer Day marked the first time in ages that philosophy,not pricing, attracted new members. For Pete's sake, many creditunions don't even use credit union in their branding. Most don'tutter the word cooperative.

We've covered credit unions that do a great job of attractingmembers to their annual meetings and fostering a truly democraticprocess. But most bury announcements about accepting volunteerapplications deep in their seldom-read newsletters, and scheduleannual meetings during the day to purposely discourage attendance.Employees dominate annual meeting vote counts, and are sometimesencouraged to support particular volunteers on the ballot.

Don't tell me it doesn't happen. I've been one of thoseemployees.

Thanks to growth, regulatory requirements and thecommoditization of financial services, credit unions don't treattheir members much differently from banks. Sure, there are theregular members that tellers greet by name, but my dad gets thesame friendly service from his favorite teller at Wells Fargo.

Though flawed, Wagner's article does accurately reveal anuncomfortable truth: Like any successful industry, credit unionsare in need of some reflection and soul searching to ensure theyare walking their talk.

Heather Anderson is executive editor of Credit Union Times. Shecan be reached at (202) 370-4822 or [email protected].