The 144,000-member, $1.6 billion Apple Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Fairfax, Va., hasbecome the first large credit union to leave CUNA this year. Three other large credit unions, two from New Mexico and one fromTexas, left the trade group last year.

CUNA has not yet commented on the departure, but Apple CEO LarryKelly said the CU's board had made the decision after concludingthe trade group was no longer a very effective advocate for creditunions.

“Can you tell me one major thing that CUNA has done for creditunions in the last 12 years?” Kelly asked.

He cited the steadily tightening regulatory burden that creditunions face under NCUA's current leadership as a reason his creditunion board had started to question whether its members wouldcontinue to be best served by a credit union charter.

“My board has voted to ask me to assess that question and we arein the midst of currently evaluating it,” Kelly said.

Kelly acknowledged that NCUA's regulatory stance was morerelaxed under former NCUA Board Chairman Dennis Dollar, but hecredited Dollar's background with credit unions more for that thanany CUNA advocacy or lobbying at the time. He also suggested it waspoor NCUA enforcement of existing rules, rather than a lack ofregulations, that led to the collapse of corporate credit unionsand other scandals.

Kelly recounted a trip he made to a Florida county last year,where the NCUA now owns over 2,000 homes from troubled creditunions, and said he had been stunned by what he saw. “Whatcould they have been thinking in making these investments,” Kellyasked, “and how could NCUA have not questioned them?”

Likewise, he pointed out that Apple had left the now-failedWesCorp Corporate Credit Union a full three years before it failedbecause the CU had been terrified of some of the corporate'sinvestments and questioned why, if Apple could see the risk,couldn't an NCUA employee on site?

When asked how CUNA could become a better credit union advocate,Kelly suggested a leadership change at the top would be a place tostart. “How can an organization represent credit unions whenits president is being sued by the regulator,” Kelly asked. “I justdon't get it.” The cases against the WesCorp and U.S. Centraldirectors, which included Cheney, were dismissed in July of2011.