PayThink

The decision by the NCUA to place U.S. Central Corporate FCU and WesCorp FCU into conservatorship will result in an even higher loss compared to what was announced at the end of January.

I met (former NCUA Chairman) Ed Callahan very briefly at a credit union conference in California several years ago — he was recognized from the podium and then asked to speak for a few minutes by the organizers of the conference — just a couple of friendly random comments.

I don't believe any of this was part of the grand plan.

Editor's Note: the following letter was written in response to NCUA's announcement that it will allow CUs to spread the cost of the corporate stabilization plan over seven years.

Editor's Note: Below are excerpts from a letter that appeared in the Providence Journal and authored by Erbin Crowell, a member of the board of the National Cooperative Business Association, about the proposed conversion to mutual savings bank charter by Coastway Credit Union in Rhode Island, of which Crowell is also a member.

Last night´s episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart included a segment on the Obama administration´s adherence to an "Orwellian renaming process" that the Bush administration used to make things such as the war in Afghanistan sound less unpleasant. The segment ridiculed the Treasury Department´s rechristening of the underperforming assets and securities banks are holding from "toxic" to "legacy." In order to dress up these up these assets for sale to investors, the Treasury has made a collection of shaky loans and ill-fated structured products sound like an upscale pro-am golf tournament.

As the Senate Banking Committee marked up its new credit card bill today, consumer groups were busy broadcasting facts and figures on what credit card borrowers need most during tough economic times and which practices would push them past their limits.

This week in Washington will be the last before Congress goes in its Easter recess, and it won´t be a quiet one. Though the Senate may mercifully leave off its pursuit of legislation to tax AIG bonuses, there will still be bankruptcy to worry about, and certain members of the House will be focused on a mortgage bill from Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will continue to push his regulatory restructuring plan with appearances on ABC´s Sunday morning talk show This Week with George Stephanopoulos and MSNBC´s Meet the Press with David Gregory. Also watch this week for guidelines from the Treasury and the Small Business Administration on how the government´s purchases of SBA loan-backed securities will be orchestrated.

The business books and the pundits call it "lost opportunity cost," the abstract yet very real economic benefits never realized because a business didn't act when it should have.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) — or more globally, advocacy indexing — is now familiar to most credit unions as a useful tool for understanding the member experience, assessing member loyalty, and predicting likely growth. Research suggests, however, that only 15% of organizations employing the tool would claim they are doing so effectively.