Leaders from community development credit unions affiliated with the National Federation of CDCUs are pushing the NCUA and the U.S. Treasury to respond with increased understanding and resources to the needs of the financial institutions.
In meetings with NCUA and the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, the leaders pressed the NCUA on making the practice of its examinations of CDCU more accurately reflect the agency's stated agenda for the community development credit unions and Treasury on the percentage of CDFI Funds that go to CDCUs.
"The credit union movement, and CDCUs in particular, are under intense stress," said Randy Chambers, chief financial officer for Self Help Credit Union and Federation chairman. "It is imperative that CDCUs have increased access to resources and a supportive regulatory environment to survive and grow."
The leaders sought particularly to make sure the NCUA's policy toward low income credit unions, moved more fully and completely through the agency so that all of the NCUA's examiners both knew about it and understood its goals. NCUA laid out its policy approach and goals toward low income credit unions in a policy paper in 2005 that it is currently revising, and the CDCU leaders complain the paper is little known even in the agency.
"We have found that many examiners and supervisors are not even aware of the white paper, much less follow its guidance," said Helen Godfrey-Smith, CEO of Shreveport Federal Credit Union and a member of the Federation's Governmental Affairs Committee. "This is a clear example of the disconnect that exists between NCUA board-level policies and actual practice on the ground."
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