Split would start damaging slippery slope

<p>In a recent opinion piece, NCUA Board Member Yolanda Wheat hit the mark in asserting that splitting the credit union federal insurer from its regulator would cause much more harm than good (“Splitting NCUA/NCUSIF would create new problems,” (CU Times, Dec. 12, 2001). In fact, she observes that if the decision to split NCUA/NCUSIF is premised on saving money for federally insured state charters, the new administrative costs associated with a split would end up costing FISCUs more (down the road). While we strongly agree on both points, I would go a step further to assert that such a split would lead to the eventual demise of the credit union community as we know it. In short, as NAFCU has said before (see “More to the split than meets the eye,” (Letter to the Editor, Nov. 14, 2001), “any split of NCUA and the NCUSIF gets us much closer to a write-down of the 1% deposit and to NCUSIF being `swept’ into FDIC and the regulatory functions ending up in Treasury or some newly created super regulator dominated by commercial banking interests.” Since banking interests don’t always jibe with credit union growth and prosperity, why go headlong down a slippery slope to certain disaster? Fred Becker President/CEO NAFCU Arlington, Va.</p>