CREDIT UNION TIMES Vol. 11, No. 10 March 8, 2000

Looking back five years ago finds the unveiling of Reg-Flex at the CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference. Reiterating the message that less regulation is in credit unions’ best interest to compete effectively, NCUA Board Member Dennis Dollar explained that NCUA must get away from a “one size fits all” regulatory approach. “I know from personal experience as a credit union manager that the single biggest deterrent to extending service to the underserved is often NCUA’s own rules and regulations, which can and sometimes do serve to stifle the very innovation and credit union desire to extend service that we at NCUA seek to see you provide,” said Dollar. “That is why I feel Reg-Flex is such an important regulatory initiative. It can help shape NCUA’s regulatory focus for this new marketplace.” That issue also finds NCUA Chairman Norm D’Amours taking aim at CUNA and league presidents, accusing them of expanding their control of the credit union system at the expense of the credit union mission of empowering consumers of small means. “Why have volunteers allowed themselves to be virtually shut out of national policymaking,” D’Amours asked GAC attendees. “Our founding fathers would consider it a perversion that there is no volunteer participation in setting national policies and goals for the credit union movement and that is the cause of many of the policy mistakes and growing internal pressures threatening to divide our movement today.”