By Ginny Brady
When Christopher Stevenson, CUES professional development manager, invited me to guest blog on CUES Skybox, he suggested that my posts cover credit union issues that are near and dear to me. My Skybox posts will be my reflections and opinions on issues, challenges and concerns related to credit union boards and advocacy. Any opinions I share with the readers of Skybox will be my own and may or may not reflect the views of the Ufirst Credit Union management or my fellow board members.
Credit professionals and advocates throughout the country have been engrossed in the discussion about the NCUA Corporate Stabilization Plan. It's likely that most credit unions have spent at least part of their board meetings discussing ways to meet the challenges of this plan. Much of 2009, 2010 and beyond will involve facing the aftermath of the fiscal and regulatory decisions that flow from it.
Early in the year, NCUA asked for responses from interested parties to an Advanced Notice for Proposed Rulemaking. This lengthy document outlined what NCUA saw as the causes of the current corporate credit union crisis and asked for suggestions to be used as a foundation for corporate credit union renewal. Some of the ANPR content covered aspects of corporate credit and governance which are clearly the concern of board members.
The ANPR comment period has now closed and NCUA reports that it has received almost 500 comments. These letters, e-mails and faxes give a snapshot of the opinions and proposed solutions offered by credit union professionals and advocates throughout the country. I have been particularly interested in responses made to questions related to corporate board governance. After reading many of these comments, I have realized that this section of the ANPR offers credit union boards a starting point to revisit and perhaps reformulate their own board governance policies and practices.
NCUA asked respondents to reflect on four areas of governance as they relate to corporate credit unions. These could just as easily have been used to focus on natural person credit unions and their own board assessment and renewal. Furthermore, the many responses NCUA received can provide boards with material for a much broader discussion on succession, expectations and governance systems. NCUA spearheaded the discussion as follows:
Should NCUA establish more stringent minimum qualifications and training requirements for individuals serving as corporate credit union directors? If so, what should the minimum qualifications be? NCUA is also considering whether to establish a category of "outside director," i.e., persons who are not officers of the corporate, officers of member natural person credit unions, and/or individuals from entirely outside the credit union industry. Commenters should offer their view on whether that approach is wise and, if so, whether NCUA should require that corporates select some minimum number of outside directors for their boards. Should a wholesale corporate credit union be required to have some directors from natural person credit unions? Comment is sought on whether NCUA should impose term limits on corporate directors and, if so, what the maximum term should be. Comment is also sought on whether corporate directors should be compensated and, if so, whether such compensation should be limited to outside directors only.
The comments NCUA solicited relate to corporate credit unions, but these issues could also be used to re-examine and evaluate the board structure of natural person credit unions. Generally speaking, topics being raised include questions of board membership, training, qualifications, term limits and compensation.
I'd like to use the opportunity that Christopher has given me through CUES Skybox to examine these topics. Future posts will examine some of the responses given by credit unions throughout the country to the corporate governance section of the ANPR as well as my reflections on the natural person credit union board system. The challenges boards and management face today make this a perfect time to use forums like Skybox to encourage conversations about how boards can recapture the credit union spirit and tradition, while renewing our structure to meet the challenges of today.
Ginny Brady has been a credit union member for over 15 years and has served as a member of the Ufirst Federal Credit Union Board of Directors since 1997. She has held the position of board president and is currently the vice president of the board. Ginny, a CUES Director member, was awarded the 2008 Volunteer of the Year Award by the Credit Union Association of New York. She has also completed the CUNA Volunteer Leadership Program and received the Blue Diamond Certificate. She has also developed a board of directors blog, The Boardcast.
