WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -
A look at our Top 10 List of Stories from 2001:
ONE: Credit unions are fortunate to escape the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The employees of XCEL FCU and FAA Eastern Region FCU, both with offices in New York's World Trade Center, all fortunately escape harm.
TWO: A federal appeals court rules against bankers' appeal of NCUA's membership regulations implementing HR 1151. NCUA data shows CUs added as many as 1.8-million potential SEG members during 2000.
THREE: The tumultuous Norm D'Amours era at NCUA ends much as it existed, in controversy, when Geoff Bacino is appointed by President Clinton to replace D'Amours. D'Amours had neglected to tender his resignation. With D'Amours' departure, five other execs also leave. Yolanda Wheat is appointed chairwoman.
FOUR: President Bush names Dennis Dollar NCUA Chairman, ending Yolanda Wheat's one-month term. The appointment by Wheat of four Clinton Administration officials to NCUA positions, at a cost of $760,000 annually, is reversed, when Dollar accepts their resignations. Dollar pushes his Reg-Flex plan to the top of the agenda and, later in the year, a proposal for expanded incidental powers.
FIVE: The NCUA repeals Norm D'Amours' Community Action Plan (CAP) before it goes into effect.
SIX: The dot.com bubble bursts. Many dot.coms begin laying off staff, but CUs don't expect it to lessen IT staff shortages. Among the dot.coms credit unions had partnered with, CUShopper, suspends operations.
SEVEN: Takeover robberies, in which branch managers are abducted during the night at home, held hostage and forced to open the credit union in the morning for the robbers, emerge in the Midwest.
EIGHT: The Renaisance Commission submits its report to CUNA on overhauling the trade group's democratic structure.
NINE: President George W. Bush becomes first sitting president to visit a credit union when he stopped at People for People Community Development CU in Philadelphia.
TEN: Credit unions begin to get sense of new federal regulations to emerge in wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
