ARLINGTON, Va. – CUNA and the credit unions leagues aren't the only groups that will be busy during the GAC Feb. 26-March 1. NASCUS also has a full agenda of meetings on tap with federal regulators and legislators, as well as with state regulators and state-chartered CUs. In fact, even before the GAC officially gets underway, NASCUS will have met with NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson on Feb. 24. NASCUS President/CEO Mary Martha Fortney said the federal agency and association have “a lot of dialogue,” and that will be evident from the agenda of topics they plan to cover in their meeting. Fortney said Johnson has a key interest in state credit union conversion regulations, and they also intend to discuss NCUA's pilot project on collecting data from credit unions on how they serve the underserved. NASCUS will have separate meetings with NCUA Vice Chairman Rodney Hood and Board member Gigi Hyland during GAC. NASCUS will also hold its own business meetings with the NASCUS Board and the Advisory Council Board on Feb. 24th and 25th. According to Fortney, these meetings are usually held in the spring when NCUA meets with NASCUS. However, since NCUA will not be meeting with the association this spring, Fortney said the association decided to have the business meetings before GAC “since so many advisory council members will be in town.” Fortney said the agenda for the business meeting covers a wide range of issues and topics, and will also include discussion of various projects NASCUS is working on this year such as the enhancement of credit unions' corporate governance practices. This, in fact, has been a topic of interest for NASCUS for the past two to three years, and Fortney noted the visibility of the issue was raised after last year's House Ways and Means Committee hearing called by Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.). In addition, NASCUS' legislative and regulatory affairs committee will meet to discuss important current issues and pending legislation such as regulatory relief, data security, Unrelated Business Income Tax, federal credit union taxation and data collection of credit unions' service to the underserved. “There needs to be an education in both state legislatures and Congress of what credit unions are doing,” said Fortney, “but that's not something that's going to happen overnight. There are so many services, products and programs credit unions offer for the underserved that are just second nature to them. They offer these services but don't consider it something special. It's just part of their regular business.” NASCUS also intends to spend time on Capitol Hill over the four days during the GAC. Among the scheduled meetings are ones with Federal Reserve Board Gov. Susan Schmidt Bies and Assistant Secretary of Treasury Emil Henry Jr. Fortney said Bies has a “good dialogue” with NASCUS and meets with state regulators whenever they're in Washington, D.C. to discuss state legislative concerns. She noted that Bies spoke at the association's annual conference a couple of years ago, and since then she meets with NASCUS annually. Fortney said NASCUS' meeting with Henry is an opportunity for state regulators and state credit union executives to discuss with him issues they consider to be important such as redefining net worth to allow merging credit unions to count the capital of both the surviving and merging credit unions. “We need to help him understand that's something Congress needs to pass,” said Fortney. NASCUS also intends to talk with Henry about CURIA, reg relief legislation and how it will affect credit unions. “When you're building on capital reform an important piece is risk-based capital. That's an important step, but total capital reform is key,” said Fortney, adding that, “We need to work with Congress and the Treasury and have dialogue with key people so they understand the issue and can make informed decisions.” Fortney said the issue of alternative capital “needs to be communicated and understood by the entire credit union community.” NASCUS' white paper on alternative capital “is an important first step,” said Fortney, but “you have to look at the whole picture, and now the credit union system isn't as focused on alternative capital as we would like it to be. Steps need to be taken, it has to do with educating credit unions.” The NASCUS president said she doesn't have a crystal ball that would allow her to predict when credit unions will see capital reform – “I'd like to say it will be sooner than later,” – but she said NASCUS “will continue to look for every opportunity to continue the discussion and have a dialogue on the issue.” The association's goal, she said, would be to have a capital forum and invite all interested parties who would want to participate in an in-depth discussion of the issue. “The key is education and discussion. The white paper is a starting point, it's something to get your arms around, but there needs to be continued discussion. It's incumbent on us to go knocking on people's doors to get that done,” she said. [email protected]