NCUA could teach credit union trade groups about tolerance, respect

I have a suggestion for the WWE’s next telecast of professional wrestling. On their card should be the CEO of the Credit Union National Association facing off against the CEO of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions. And the referee for the event can be the CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

In recent opinion pieces published in the Credit Union Journal, the CEOs of both credit union trade associations have taken to openly criticizing the actions or remarks of the other. In doing so they appear to be attempting to claim that one association is better than the other and does more for credit unions.

Keep in mind, both the groups are in business to promote credit unions; both protect them from adverse laws, rules and regulations; both provide guidance and advice, and both promote the image that credit unions have earned as the good guys in the white hats. For the most part, they both do their job well.

However, their most recent exchange of words leaves the impression that the two association leaders are falling into the ongoing Washington rhetoric of charges and counter-charges. One expects such conduct from opposing political parties who each have their own constituency, but not from two individuals who represent the same industry.

Rather than taking shots at each other to see whose hands are bigger or who has more marbles in their bag, they should look to the tag team of McWatters and Metsger. Two NCUA board members – each from a different political party, each with their own ideas and philosophy – are working together to achieve mutually agreeable actions that benefit all credit unions. No name calling, no innuendos, no putting hot water in the other’s pitcher, but rather just doing the job that is expected of each.

So as a show of comradery and a pledge to the principles that each espouse, when the leaders of NAFCU and CUNA get in the ring they should together make short order of the real enemy – the referee with the letters ICBA emblazoned on the back of his shirt.