PayThink

Regarding Stuart Perlitsh’s letter to the editor on July 7 about Dan Mica’s salary: if the NCUA board wants to know why they shouldn’t order credit unions to publish CEO salaries, here is the reason. While Stuart is understandably concerned about the health of his and other California credit unions, blaming it in any way on Mica’s salary is disingenuous.

Credit unions were founded for times like today’s economic challenges. The main reason that we are in such a credit downturn today is that too many financial institutions turned to transactions in lieu of relationship building.

As the volume of deposited and cashed checks converting to electronic form overtakes traditional paper clearing and settlement channels, credit unions late in adopting branch image capture are seeing courier costs skyrocket. How does a CU evaluate whether now is the time to consider implementing branch capture?

I read with great interest the comments sent in by Stuart Perlitsh and printed in your July 7 issue regarding Dan Mica’s compensation.

Several years ago I was with a client who mentioned that he would be retiring in six to seven years and was thinking about a legacy he could leave for his credit union. He had been the CEO for many years and reflected on how he could best leave an imprint and ensure a better position for his membership. He concluded that the most important legacy he could leave as his forward-looking contribution was a new building.

You've seen their panicked faces on TV, perhaps even in your community if you live near a branch bank customers lined up all night and around the block to withdraw their life's savings from a bank in trouble or rumored to be in trouble (the latter always leading to the self-fulfilling former).

As I was just browsing the latest CU Journal, I was somewhat surprised to see the logo of Salmon Falls CCU in the merger “funnel” (CU Journal, July 7).

When Michael Fryzel assumes the chairmanship of the National Credit Union Administration next month, he’ll represent more than just the latest in a line of presidential appointees who survived all the deal-cutting and trade-offs needed in Congress to make it to the board–he’ll bring a new set of eyes and, ideally, some much-needed scrutiny and hard questions over who’s minding the store over at the deposit insurance fund.

The recent letter to the editor regarding CUNA CEO Dan Mica’s (CU Journal, July 7) salary was disturbing and disappointing–not from the perspective of what his benefit package is or how much he gets paid, but from the perspective that the writer seems to have overlooked his 10-plus years of leadership as CUNA’s President/CEO, which has resulted in accomplishments too numerous to mention. His relentless and tireless pursuit of ensuring that credit unions remain a choice for consumers, his lobbying efforts on behalf of all credit unions in keeping the bankers at bay, and his endless pursuit in ensuring that credit union regulatory relief remains a priority and gets passed are testaments to his leadership at CUNA. To call into question his salary/benefits package and whether it is “people helping people” was unfair and unfounded. I, for one, as well as many of my colleagues, think that Dan Mica is worth every penny that he earns.

When a credit union engages a vendor in contract negotiations for a new technology platform, the process often becomes muddied, lines are blurred and terms of service become unclear. Without proper due diligence, oversights on behalf of the credit union often result in costly after-conversion upgrades and maintenance.