ALEXANDRIA, Va. — For Dennis Winans, NCUA's chief financial officer, one of the best parts of his work is not the numbers he crunches, but the people.

“I think one of the best things are the people who work for me,” he said. Winans started his career at NCUA in 1979 as an accountant and director of insurance within the Office of Examination and Insurance. He has served as CFO since 1995.

When Winans initially applied for the post with NCUA, he admitted he really did not know what the agency did, but he had federal government experience having worked at Treasury and the former Healthcare Financing Administration, and he had financial services experience as an accountant for the now merged away American Security Bank in Washington, D.C.

“I was impressed with the agency and I always have been for the most part,” Winans said. Once he came over, he liked the agency's small size–of course with just one administrator back then–and the lack of red tape. He added that “the last two boards have been very good to work for,” but the '90s were difficult for many at the agency. “When you're dealing with politicians, it's hard to come out ahead,” he joked.

Winans' job as CFO has put him into the political fray in dealing with the agency's budget, the overhead transfer rate and operating fees. He explained that he meets with the board prior to officially delivering the final budget at the NCUA Board meeting to work out any disagreements.

Then there are the public briefings where a proposed budget is presented and commenters, such as CUNA, NAFCU, and NASCUS provide their comments; though all want a fair system, they do not always agree on what that means. For years the state chartered credit unions and regulators had asked NCUA to share how the agency arrives at the overhead transfer rate, funds transferred from the share insurance fund to the regulatory side to help pay the cost of the safety and soundness function, which it did a few years ago. The move appears to have quelled some of the clashing, but the states are still after NCUA to define what is insurance related and what is not when determining the overhead transfer rate. “For state credit unions, obviously this is significant for them…That issue comes up every year. [Director of Examination and Insurance] Dave Marquis and his staff are working on some definitions,” Winans said.

NAFCU obviously has an interest in keeping the operating fees federal credit unions pay as low as feasibly possible, which is intimately tied into the budget and overhead transfer rate.

A final date has not been set yet for the public briefing on the agency's budget but it has always been in October. The process began in July with the regions submitting their proposals by the end of August. Then central staff goes over the regional budgets with the staff there to ensure everything is correct. Briefings are then held with the office director and by early October a proposal is ready to go to the board. There is usually some tweaking between the proposal and the final, Winans said. In the past amendments have even been made the morning of, he said. “We always look for areas where we can tighten up our budget,” Winans added. He pointed out that the agency had cut about 90 positions through attrition since 2000. Though the number of credit unions is shrinking, the assets and complexity of the remaining credit unions continues to increase so “at this point we really can't cut field staff any more,” he explained.

Winans said he did not expect any significant budgetary changes for the 2007 budget dollar-wise. However, he said this year's budget could have the least variance between money budgeted and actual dollars spent. Typically, the agency has had about 5% variance, he said, but it will come in way under that this year due to refining of the process.

The budget, operating fees, and overhead transfer rate all receive final consideration in November. “This is our very busy time of the year,” the CFO commented. Protecting, Growing Insurance Fund

Another large chunk of Winans' time is spent on management of the NCUSIF. Right now the agency is implementing changes from the deposit insurance reform bill signed into law earlier this year. That law increased deposit insurance coverage on certain retirement accounts from $100,000 to $250,000. Winans said the resulting increase in insured shares should come out to be less than 1% of the current insured shares, but he would have a better idea after an analysis of the June Call Reports. Earnings of the insurance fund are up significantly this year, maybe even double, due to higher yields on the fund's short-term investments; the board has a policy of not investing out beyond five years, Winans explained. He tries to keep the fund's investments laddered out so the same amount is maturing every month.

“This year I think we're going to be very close to 1.3%,” Winans said, referring to the NCUSIF's equity level. When the equity level reaches over 1.3%, the agency is authorized to grant insured credit unions a dividend.

While the CFO job handles one of the most important elements at any agency or company–the money–Winans also has a wide variety of other responsibilities from facilities maintenance and pest control to procurement to mailroom operations. “It's been kind of a learning process with me for some of the issues. Some still is,” he said. He laughed recalling how former Board Member Debbie Matz complained that there was always trash in NCUA's underground parking garage where she parked and he had to handle tracking down the furry little culprit. This instance may have been where Winans' interest in hunting tied into his professional life. Winans lives with his Brady Bunch-style family and pets on 25 acres of land at the base of Bull Run Mountain in Virginia, which creates a bit of a commute for him into Alexandria, but it is worth it. He is able to maintain two horses for his five children, ranging in ages 12 to 26; Winans remarried about three years ago after losing his first wife to melanoma a few years before that. The family home will serve as the setting for the “big wedding”–Winans explains as his eyes widen–he is planning for his oldest daughter this fall. He is hoping for some rain by then or the pond will just look like a mud pit. Three more daughters to go!

Winans really enjoys outdoor activities like hunting, fishing, skiing and scuba diving. He has a photo in his office of himself posing with a large reef shark that even agreed to smile. If he were not at NCUA, Winans said he would probably be a veterinarian because of his love of animals. He has two labradoodles–a Labrador Retriever-Standard Poodle mix.

But all this is not enough to pull Winans into retirement at least for the next couple of years, he said. “I enjoy what I do,” he said. “I've enjoyed my career at NCUA…We've got good people here.”

Additionally, he described NCUA as a “tremendous agency” with a lot of benefits and “on the cutting-edge of technology” thanks to Chief Information Officer Doug Verner. He also applauded the appointment of career executive director Len Skiles; though he did not know it at the time, Winans and Skiles served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam around the same time.

Still the agency is working out an agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union, which Winans called “a fact of life.” He added that he did not want credit unions to pay for any additional benefits that might be part of the deal. “We should not see any large increase in the budget due to the union,” Winans stated. –scooke@cutimes.com

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NCUA CFO Winans is Much More Than Just The Agency's Chief Numbers Cruncher

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