BankThink

I read with great interest Frank Diekmann’s editorial in the July 21 issue on NCUA and the current losses being experienced in the NCUSIF. A couple of items to note:

Today’s investors are caught in a battle between rising inflation and a slowing economy, translating into a debate over whether interest rates will be moving lower or higher in the near future. The variables continue to change daily, but one factor has been constant–the rising price of oil.

Here we are again beginning to think about planning for next year. Now that we know the NCUA examiners will be asking to review our “Strategic Plan,” it may be time to put a bit of extra effort into our standing document this year.

I take it all back. It’s officially retracted. Like the White House when forced to release documents, I’m “redacting” it; any future reproductions of that previous column are to be published only with all the text marked over in heavy, black marker.

Regarding Stuart Perlitsh’s letter to the editor on July 7 about Dan Mica’s salary: if the NCUA board wants to know why they shouldn’t order credit unions to publish CEO salaries, here is the reason. While Stuart is understandably concerned about the health of his and other California credit unions, blaming it in any way on Mica’s salary is disingenuous.

Credit unions were founded for times like today’s economic challenges. The main reason that we are in such a credit downturn today is that too many financial institutions turned to transactions in lieu of relationship building.

As the volume of deposited and cashed checks converting to electronic form overtakes traditional paper clearing and settlement channels, credit unions late in adopting branch image capture are seeing courier costs skyrocket. How does a CU evaluate whether now is the time to consider implementing branch capture?

I read with great interest the comments sent in by Stuart Perlitsh and printed in your July 7 issue regarding Dan Mica’s compensation.

Several years ago I was with a client who mentioned that he would be retiring in six to seven years and was thinking about a legacy he could leave for his credit union. He had been the CEO for many years and reflected on how he could best leave an imprint and ensure a better position for his membership. He concluded that the most important legacy he could leave as his forward-looking contribution was a new building.

You've seen their panicked faces on TV, perhaps even in your community if you live near a branch bank customers lined up all night and around the block to withdraw their life's savings from a bank in trouble or rumored to be in trouble (the latter always leading to the self-fulfilling former).