PayThink

During the course of a busy day, we go to the grocery store, pick up a prescription, and stop by our financial institution. But consider living 50 miles away from these services and how this would change these everyday tasks.

In 35 years of professional involvement with credit unions I have been exposed to a huge number of unique and creatively fashioned solutions to members' financial problems. Most would have been virtually impossible by any other type of retail financial institution.

What are we waiting for? Why not? Now is the time! NASCUS hears these questions and comments often when discussing the topic of supplemental capital for credit unions. From a safety and soundness perspective, NASCUS and state regulators are convinced that there is no reason to delay the legislative and regulatory changes to institute supplemental capital for all credit unions.

There's nothing like a deep recession to scrape the glitter off "corporate social responsibility." Already, charities are cutting back on programs and staff because of a sharp drop in company donations. Firms are dumping plans that match employee giving with their own. It seems that when sales are in the tank, contributing to social betterment is a PR luxury many for-profits can no longer afford.

Something happened to our little central Indiana credit union. After decades of satisfying slumber and peaceful contentment serving a single sponsor, the Northpark Community Credit Union board hired new management, and gave us the task of growing the membership.

So what's the big hurry?

The comments attributed to Mr. Prins (CU Journal Online, Feb. 11) reflect either an indifference to, or a lack of understanding of, the fiduciary duties of a director of any financial institution, including a credit union. Messrs. Franklin and Cheney, and all the other U.S. Central directors, have a legal duty not to disclose to any third party-including their respective employers-any confidential information about U.S. Central that they learn in their capacity as U.S. Central board members. Notwithstanding the intertwining relationships common throughout the credit union system, credit union directors are equally subject to the same legal duties as are the directors of any other corporation.

Sometimes you need a simple solution to a complex problem.

In the months leading up to CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference this week in Washington, the trade group promoted attendance with the slogan, "Be Bold. Be Heard. Be There." It might need to try, "Be-gin. Be Civil. Be Done." when it comes time to turning on the audience microphones.

Echoes of CNBC commentator Rick Santelli's rant against President Obama's new anti-foreclosure plan yesterday are still reverberating around the Internet, and with good reason. Mr. Santelli managed to make the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange look like the inside of a General Motors plant, with gruff, put-upon workers booing the unfair burden with which the federal government had shouldered them. But as bankers and traders awoke this morning and saw some bank stocks close to 20-year lows, the contradiction in Mr. Santelli's thinking was evident.