SPRINGFIELD, Vt.-Should new credit union examiners spend time working inside CUs before going to work for their respective regulators?
One credit union executive thinks so. Jerry Cross, CEO of One Credit Union, is pitching a proposal to regulators and trade associations that recommends that all new examiners spend at least a few months inside a credit union learning the inner workings of the organizations before they begin examining them.
"They don't have a feel at all for what we do," Cross told Credit Union Journal. "Not at all. Their whole focus is to find what's wrong in a credit union. We understand that. We understand the role of the examiner, but to get a real well-rounded view of the health of a credit union they also need to understand how the CU is doing in serving its membership-and none of those questions are asked."
Cross' pitch entails placing examiners-in-training in credit unions for a few months-at the regulator's expense-so that they can shadow various departments within the credit union.
"Two to three months is probably enough time so that they could shadow certain departments that are absolutely critical-lending, the deposit side of the house, and work with senior management and sit in on some meetings so they can get a feel for considerations that go into decisions," said Cross. "It's not like they're going to be doing transactions or writing loans."
The CEO believes that just being a part of internal conversations-whether it be about rolling out a new product or new regulations-will give these future examiners an understanding of what CUs deal with on a day-to-day basis, which will hopefully carry over into their future as examiners.
"I think we could give them a pretty good view of what we do and what those challenges are, and how examinations and audits can impact that in a pretty profound way," he said. "In two months we could certainly give them something to consider."
Cross noted that there would have to be some controls put in place, including that participating CUs would not be able to offer jobs to the future examiners, and anyone shadowing a credit union would be prohibited from examining that institution.
Cross initially put the idea to participants on the CUNA CFO Council's and CUESnet online forums, and he said that he received positive responses from more than 40 different people. Since then he has also pitched it to CUNA President Bill Cheney and others.
Should the proposal be instituted, suggested Cross, "what you may see happen is it might help shape their mindset and their bedside manner, if you will. When they come in here, they have an appreciation for what we do, as opposed to just having a 'Hey, this is what's wrong, fix it or else' attitude. That could cause a shift to creating a much more positive atmosphere between examiners and credit unions in general."
