Editor's note: The following letter to the editor was originally posted as a comment to our April 7, 2015 CUTimes.com letter to the editor, "Why Are Credit Unions the Last to Know?" by Alicia Nelson, and our April 10, 2015 Editor's Column, "Oh, the Irony: The NCUA, NCUSIF & Alabama One" by Executive Editor Heather Anderson.
RBC1, RBC2 and now this (the NCUA's NCUSIF Improvements white paper, which NAFCU Director of Regulatory Affairs Alicia Nelson called "another piece of the NCUA's agenda for mitigating perceived risks within credit unions") … same old, same old! It's the same group operating in the same manner with the same disregard for the regulated. It's just a different object of their deliberations that is receiving "the NCUA treatment," and is yet another reason why the NCUA needs an advisory group similar to the one at the CFPB. It's easier to fix something when it's being deliberated than when it's put forth as a really stupid idea. I would recommend the NCUA to sit in on the credit union advisory group meeting and witness what listening actually looks like.
(The NCUA's absence from the recent fraud allegations at Alabama One Credit Union) is the last in a long history of debacles brought on and mismanaged by the current reign of terror from the NCUA. It wasn't that long ago when the NCUA moved WesCorp out of interest rate risk and forced them into credit risk. Then, even though they were "on-site and engaged," we had the Really Big Debacle. One can also look at the NCUA's unwavering insistence since 2009 that rates could ONLY go up and "any day now." The credit unions that took that advice are probably among the merged or dearly departed by now.
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There is an attitude on the very top of "we know best," but they've proved once again that they don't know diddly, and oops, they did it again more times than Britney Spears did. You would think that after so many helpings of humble pie, the NCUA would be a bit more contrite. Unfortunately, it looks like a change in attitude will only come when there is a change in personnel. Let's just hope we all can hang on long enough for that!
We need a change at the NCUA, and it needs to start in the chairperson's seat. It seems that inside the entire beltway there is this delusion of "we're the savior, and all the things we oversee are in our hands alone," and yet, the outcomes of their actions are disaster, debacle and devastation. Seriously, the harder they try, the worse it gets. There was a great joke going around in the 1970s or 1980s about keeping your hands off the copy machine … if you ever heard it, you know it applies here.
Gregg Stockdale
President/CEO
1st Valley Credit Union
San Bernardino, Calif.
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