DEARBORN, Mich. — The members of DFCU Owners United, the groupof members of the $1.8 billion DFCU Financial that opposed the CU'sattempted conversion to a mutual bank, seeks help from other creditunions in putting pressure on NCUA.

The group wants credit union boards of directors to passresolutions urging the agency to require DFCU to honor members'petitions and hold a special meeting at which some or all boardmembers could be removed.

The agency has said repeatedly that the CU should hold themeeting, but has not taken any further action, saying that it willnot get involved in a dispute between a credit union and itsmembers.

But Catherine Roberts, CEO of the $235 million Research FCU,headquartered in Warren, Michigan, the first to pass a resolution,argued that NCUA's unwillingness to enforce DFCU's bylawsundermined member confidence in the entire credit unionindustry.

“When credit unions fail to honor their own bylaws, it sets avery dangerous precedent and can result in severely weakening thecredit union's governance structure,” Roberts said. “When onecredit union is allowed to intentionally ignore its bylaws, thisoccurrence could reflect poorly on all credit unions.”

Roberts said Research FCU began to pay attention to the DFCUcontroversy when the larger CU attempted to convert to a mutualbank. Research is also an automotive credit union, serving workersat General Motors. Roberts said that Research's board had been verydisturbed that the first indication that members of DFCU would getabout their CU wanting to change charters would come in the mailwith a ballot.

The board's concerns only grew when, after the application waswithdrawn, the CU simply refused to honor its bylaws and to holdthe special meeting.

“If a credit union can just ignore its bylaws, then why havebylaws,” Roberts asked. “And we believe quite seriously that theenforcement of CU bylaws is absolutely a matter of safety andsoundness for the entire CU industry because credit union membersneed to have confidence in their credit unions.”

She also noted that NCUA has been selective in when it getsinvolved in bylaws disputes, enforcing bylaws some of the time andnot enforcing them at other times. “I don't recall that there werealways clear safety and soundness issues at other times when theagency has insisted a credit union follow its bylaws,” Robertssaid.

A spokesman for DFCU Members United said that other creditunions have expressed an interest in the resolution, but that nomore had passed it as of press time.