In April 2010, NCUA board member Gigi Hyland released a white paper outlining the issues and opportunities inherent in nontraditional sources of capital. Hyland's paper, based, in part, on seven studies my organization released between 2001 and 2008, concludes, "Affording credit unions the ability to raise supplemental capital that counts toward PCA 'net worth' requirements is an appropriate policy consideration."

Our vast research on the topic makes the same conclusions based on policy analysis, field tests and examples of secondary-capital raising activities from credit unions located outside the U.S. and other types of cooperatives.

Yet, as reported widely by Credit Union Times and others, the possibility of advancing supplemental capital in today's political and economic environments may not be feasible. While the Filene Research Institute does not advocate one position or another in any policy studies, sometimes our research leaves little doubt about the appropriateness of certain proposals. To supplement the hard research, I thought I would share a personal experience I recently had with the concept of supplemental capital with another type of cooperative.