It takes two to tango, two to play catch, two to carry a canoeand two to hold a conversation. Two is not a large number but twoworking together can accomplish a lot.

At the NCUA, it takes only two to pass a regulation that willimpact an entire financial services industry. It takes only two topass a budget that must be paid for by all federally chartered andfederally insured credit unions. And it takes only two to set thecourse of an industry and how it does business for years tocome.

The two we are talking about that carry such weight andsignificance are the votes of two of the three NCUA boardmembers.

The position of power at the NCUA is vested in the chair.Whoever is sitting as the chairman is the person in control. Thatperson is responsible for the day to day activities of the agency,is the spokesperson, sets the agenda for the monthly board meeting,decides which rules will be considered for change and what thosechanges will be, determines what new rules will be proposed and howthey will read, and which rules will actually be presented to theboard for a vote and when that will be. It is a powerful positionbut it is only one person and hence only one vote.

And since NCUA is a three person board, in order to move a ruleor agenda forward, it takes two.

Throughout the history of NCUA there have been many types ofalliances formed to secure the magic number two. Often times it isthe two members of the same political party that join together toachieve the needed number. If there is a power strugglebetween those two or if some reason their personalities clash, theminority party member may be enticed to go along with the chairmanand cast the deciding second vote.

For one to become two, the chairman can employ various methodsof addition. A proposed rule can be modified or changed to theliking of the second vote. A budget line item may be increased ordecreased. A promise to help achieve one of number two's petprojects may be made or as in one case, many years ago, a chairmanengineered the appointment of the member of the opposite party asvice chairman in order to secure a second vote for his agenda.

So there are many ways for one to become two. At NCUA it isfascinating to watch how the math works, what offers of enticementare made, whose philosophy will prevail and which second person isshown to have the greater muscle.

It's like a chess game. Each move is calculated to achieve anend result. You are always looking ahead trying to anticipate theother players' next move.

With major issues coming before the board in the next few monthssuch as the annual budget, risk based capital and securitization,it will be interesting to watch the moves that will take place toget from one to two and who in the end will be able to say “checkmate”.