WEBSTER, Mass. — Given the emotions and costs surrounding losses and failures by corporate credit unions this year, there was great potential for a task force studying the issue to be caught up in politics.
But that was never the case, according to Michael Lussier, CEO of Webster First CU here, who co-chaired of the Corporate Credit Union Restructure Policy Task Force. "The entire group got together, had a meeting of the minds," he said. "All the issues in the report were unanimous. It was a unanimous outpour from the committee."
Terry West, CEO of VyStar CU in Jacksonville, Fla., and the other co-chair of the task force, agreed, adding that "NAFCU and CUNA worked very well on it. We had an extremely good group. Mike and I were extremely proud that NAFCU and CUNA worked so well together on this."
Lussier said that the goal of the task force was two-fold. "Our whole intention was to minimize the risk to natural-person credit unions, and to keep the integrity of the corporate in place-and to be able to utilize them for the services they offer," he explained.
"We all agreed there is a need for the corporate credit unions to exist," West added. "We looked at the question 'What will corporate credit unions structure need to look like so that credit unions will support it?' I think that kept us very focused."
One issue not addressed in the task force's report and recommendations is the conversion process, Lussier said. "One thing that comes to mind is that no matter what way the corporates structure changes, there should be a direct plan on the conversion process. That was not addressed at all in the task force," Lussier said.
"We tried to stay away from specific approaches on how to do it," West noted. "The conversion process would really need to come from the corporate credit unions and the natural person credit unions who participate in them."
West stressed that that the recommendations are meant to be used on an individual basis, but together. "If you change one thing it wont be as valuable as a recommendation," he said. "We did try to stress in the report that what we put together needs to be considered as a whole."
So far, Lussier said the task force has heard only positive feedback on their recommendations. He hasn't heard feedback on any specific points, only of the report in general.
"We haven't gotten all feedback yet," he noted. "We're still waiting for feedback from NCUA at this point."
