D’Amours To CUs: 'I Told YouSo’

ARLINGTON, Va. - (02/24/06) – Former NCUA Chairman NormanD¹Amours isn’t surprised to see calls by Congress thatcredit unions document service to underserved communities and sayshe warned credit unions as long as a decade ago. The former creditunion regulator helped enact a program requiring communitychartered credit unions to reach out to low-income members and tomeasure that servcie–only to see it repealed after he leftNCUA. “I attempted to get the NCUA board to survey creditunions on their service to the underserved in 1999,”D’Amours told The Credit Union Journal. “We agreed on alist of questions. The debate, instead, was about whether thesurvey would be mandatory or voluntary. I wanted it to bemandatory, the other two board members wanted it to be voluntary. Iargued that a voluntary survey would be statistically meaningless,and as it happened, the (Office of Management and Budget) agreedwith me.” So, what does D¹Amours think of this mostrecent effort by NCUA to survey credit unions on their service tothe underserved and whether it will adequately meet demands fordocumentation” “That is exactly the right question toask,” D’Amours responded.