SEATTLE-As the fairly new NCUA Board members continue to carve out their individual regulatory styles, JoAnn Johnson made clear that she was interested in doing her best to remove regulatory hurdles for credit unions. She asked the credit union attendees of NAFCU's Annual Conference to comment on areas that they feel more flexibility is possible. "I firmly believe it is the responsibility of the regulator to regulate and it is the job of the credit union board and management to manage the credit union," Johnson explained. Regulatory streamlining with an eye toward safety and soundness is essential to federal credit unions' ability to compete in the marketplace, she said. Member business lending is a big issue in this area and NCUA staff is currently working up a proposal to amend the business lending rule by stealing ideas from recently approved state rules. "I believe this board will be able to do a lot of fine things in the years to come," Johnson concluded. [email protected]