BankThink

When the notorious bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he replied "...because that's where the money is." While one would have hoped for a higher standard from the NCUA, the nation's credit union chief regulator, when asked why they were pillaging the capital accounts of thousands of natural person credit unions to support a few, badly managed corporate credit unions, the NCUA response was tantamount to "because that's where the capital is."

Losses among some corporates have resulted in the planned corporate stabilization program and the NCUA ANPR, which have transcended the corporate network itself and clearly become an issue of vital concern to every individual credit union. The issues addressed in the ANPR not only have the potential to radically reshape the corporate structure, but they also could dramatically and irreversibly impact the future of every natural-person credit union.

The days immediately following Katrina were so incredibly difficult for our employees as well as our members at Gulf Coast Community Federal Credit Union. The devastation in our area was such that many of our employees had lost their homes. One of our Gulfport branches was completely destroyed and our Bay St. Louis branch had been in the way of the surge and suffered serious water damage.

My 100th birthday coincides with the credit unions' 100th birthday. I have been a volunteer for more than 50 years and experienced growth of services from just savings and loans to the multiple services now offered. Several months ago I had lunch with Newt Gingrich, and I asked him what advice he had for credit unions. He said, "Adopt every available new method to provide easy access to your services."

If you like your loose ends tied up or you're one of those "closure" people, then you're feeling a might uncomfortable right now, especially if you were at CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference last week.

There´s no escaping the fact that Citigroup is now essentially under government control, but its fate isn´t turning out to be as black as some observers had feared. Now it´s capitalized, with a more respectable market value and a satisfying level of tangible common equity, not to mention a solid Tier 1 capital ratio. As the market prepared to open this morning, it was clear that Citi shareholders weren´t going to have a happy Friday but they may be the only group with something to complain about following the conversion of part of the government´s preferred stake into common shares.

The new Treasury Department is turning out to be quite particular about how its programs are labeled.

Have lawmakers become a new market force? The past week of wild stock-price swings that dropped bank share prices down to 20-year lows has whipped up a hum of comments from market observers about the power of voices on Capitol Hill.

At this morning´s in-and-out press event at the Treasury Department, we noticed a funny thing: the prominent role given James Lockhart, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He´s one high-profile Republican appointee who doesn´t appear to be headed out the door anytime soon.

"It doesn´t matter what the banks do...It´s the public sector decisions that are going to matter."