During the Governmental Affairs Conference, Chip Filson announced his intention to seek an NCUA Board seat,which was the culmination of speeches and online postingscriticizing the NCUA’s activities throughout the financial andcorporate crises. He has launched a petition designed to forcePresident Obama to consider him as a candidate. Chip knows creditunions inside and out, and he’s fiercely intelligent. He’s highlyqualified to sit on the NCUA Board as far as his résumé isconcerned.

But this is where I give pause to his idea of reforming the NCUAappointment process, as stated in the petition, "Appointed NCUAgoverning leaders should hold to the same standards credit unionsthemselves follow. They should be motivated by the uniquecontributions and needs of a cooperative business."

The NCUA should absolutely consider credit unions’ uniquequalities when regulating and overseeing the industry. That’s theagency’s duty. It is NOT, NOT, NOT, however, the agency’s duty to“be motivated by” the seven cooperative principles. Recognizingexaminers for their chartering efforts, as Chip has suggested, is aVERY BAD idea. The credit union community is no longer a collectionof 22,000 small credit unions. Today it holds more than $1 trillionin assets and 7,000 credit unions. The world has said, we don’tneed any more financial institutions–perhaps different ones but notmore of the same.