LAS VEGAS - Newspaper articles featuring National Credit Union Administration Chairman Norman E. D'Amours are once again infuriating the industry.
The latest offending piece ran in the Sept. 18 issue of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. In an article headlined "Credit union safety worries federal regulator," Mr. D'Amours knocked the Credit Union National Association and raised concerns about the viability of privately insured credit unions.
There are nine privately insured credit unions in Nevada.
Mr. D'Amours' remarks riled Glen A. Reese, president of the Nevada Credit Union League, and Bill Ferrence, manager of privately insured $220 million-asset Boulder Dam Credit Union.
Mr. Reese fired off letters to Nevada credit unions, Mr. D'Amours, members of Nevada's congressional delegation, and President Clinton.
"Your assistance in controlling this presidential appointee is sincerely requested," Mr. Reese wrote the president in a Sept. 19 letter.
Mr. Ferrence also griped to Mr. D'Amours and the White House.
"You have a responsibility to see that the NCUA helps credit unions prosper and improve," Mr. Ferrence said in a letter to President Clinton dated Sept. 18. "After reading this article and looking into other actions and statements by the NCUA chairman, I would hope you would give him direction. He obviously is off track!"
In a letter to the Review-Journal, the NCUA's director of public and congressional affairs, Bob Loftus, called the headline misleading. However, he said the article was accurate.
In July, after two stories ran in USA Today, some credit union officials charged that Mr. D'Amours was painting a negative picture of the industry.
