WASHINGTON — With an activist new president and a Congress eagerto revamp the rules for the financial services industry, CUNAPresident/CEO Dan Mica and his colleagues have many balls in theair right now. Mica recently sat down with Credit Union Times anddiscussed the year-one in which he announced that he will step downby the end of next year-and made some predictions about 2010.

Credit Union Times: What have been the highlights of 2009?

Dan Mica: We started the year with the corporate situation. TheNCUA placed the two corporates [U.S. Central and WesCorp] intoconservatorship, and this caused the creation of the stabilizationfund, which we got through Congress in less than two months. Thatshows what happens when everyone in the industry pulls together.You can really make a difference. We were also able to get Congressto fix the item in the credit card bill so credit unions and otherfinancial institutions aren't required to send out statements onopen-end accounts be delivered 21 days before they are due. Thatwas stopped quickly because of the work CUNA and the leagues did.Also, we persuaded Congress to raise the CLF's borrowing authorityto around $40 billion. Also, when the House Financial Services wasconsidering the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, we wereoriginally told that the $1.5 billion threshold for being exemptedwas all we would get, but with a lot of work, we got it up to $10billion. And we also got an exemption for the systemic risk fundfor all institutions with assets of $50 billion or less, and thatincludes all credit unions. You have to take your victories a stepat a time.