ARLINGTON, Va.-Dan Mica may have said it best last year when he announced his planned departure after 13 years as CUNA president. Mica said he was advised by his mentor, former Congressman Paul Rogers, never to stay at any job for more than 10 years. You lose your interest, your enthusiasm. You get bored.
But after 10 years as head of Mica's rival trade association, Fred Becker doesn't seem bored or to have lost his enthusiasm for the job as CEO of NAFCU.
Becker was brought in from outside the industry, as a congressional liaison, a lobbyist, for the Navy's Reserve Officers Association to fill some big feet, those of credit union icon Ken Robinson.
"He had the Bill Clinton charisma," is how Becker describes his predecessor, a former Marine Corp. general who could command an audience of credit union execs as easily as a platoon of soldiers. "I don't think anyone will ever replace what Ken Robinson meant to the industry."
Despite Robinson and his staff's best efforts, NAFCU was always seen as a second sister to CUNA on Capitol Hill, at NCUA and wherever else credit unions were and are heard. After all, the group was just a fraction of the size of CUNA in membership and finances. More than once, a NAFCU lobbyist was mistaken by a congressman for a CUNA representative. Robinson's and NAFCU's crowning achievement came with the passage of HR 1151, the CU Membership Access Act, when it joined CUNA and its state league affiliates and the entire credit union movement to coalesce behind a single cause.
By the time Becker came along in January 2000, HR 1151 was just a memory and a great deal of time was spent working to unwind some of the things HR 1151 did, like limit member business lending and set minimum capital rules for credit unions.
Under Becker, NAFCU has come a long way. But it may be hard to tell from the outside. He has expanded NAFCU education, compliance and conferences, which are some of the best in the industry, and grown its for-profit subsidiary. More recently he has beefed up its lobbying. The hiring of Dan Berger as his chief lobbyist helped put NAFCU on the map on Capitol Hill, where NAFCU is regularly consulted on issues of major significance, not just to credit unions but all financial services interests. Increasingly, legislation reflects the NAFCU lobby.
NAFCU has played important roles in legislative battles over bankruptcy reform, regulatory relief, mortgage cramdowns, and more recently the creation of a consumer financial protection agency. Often, their work is distinguished by keeping credit unions out of a bill-like the new consumer agency. NAFCU was also behind the creation of the Corporate CU Stabilization fund which is effectuating the corporate bailout, and NCUA's decision to create its own office of consumer affairs.
All the while NAFCU has employed the same number of workers it had when Becker walked in the door ten years ago-62.
Perhaps the thing Becker is most proud of is the bottom line, as NAFCU continues to stay out of the red, despite struggles by CUNA and several other credit union trade groups to stay profitable. NAFCU earned net income of $200,000 for 2009, after a $475,000 net for 2008. During that time, NAFCU membership has declined from 916 members, representing 14% of all federally chartered credit unions, to 768 members, about 16% of all FCUs.
Credit to the Staff
He credits his staff for NAFCU's fiscal accomplishments, which has seen spending increased by just 22% over the past decade, while inflation has been 28%. "I have a very good, proactive staff," he said.
Of the major congressional issue always at the front of the credit union lobby, Becker said he is confident the federal tax exemption is safe for now. Among other things, he sees the greed being cited as a major cause of the financial crisis as a positive for non-profit credit unions, because it poses credit unions in a good light.
Despite continued advances by CUNA, NAFCU has no plans to merge into the group, Becker insists. "People recognize widely the value of NAFCU and appreciate it," said Becker. "They value the 24x7x365 attention. They value the costs for what they get and the fiscal responsibility."
Becker, now 61, said he has no current plans to step aside. But when he does, he plans to move to rural Tennessee where he and his wife Barbara plan to build a home on a plot they own there.
A graduate of the Naval Academy, Becker likes to use nautical terms. "When you leave the command of a ship you get out of the way," he said. "You don't stand in the way of the new command."
