Serving Low-income Communities: Recommendations for the NCUA Outreach Task Force - This paper addresses NCUA policies and practices regarding credit unions that serve low-income members, whether they are predominantly low-income (i.e., designated as low-income credit unions, or "LICUs") or otherwise serve significant numbers of low-income people. This paper has been developed in response to NCUA’s MSAP report and new Outreach Task Force.

The Federation's ecomentations to the NCUA Outreach Task Force are available by clicking here.

One of our member-CDCUs, Opportunities CU (Burlington, VT), submitted a letter to NCUA's Outreach Task Force, expressing support for the Federation's position paper and offering their own comments and recommendations. 

The comment letter from Opportunities CU is available by clicking here.

Postcard from Paradise: The Land Gotcha Forgot
Examiners and CDCUs Working Together

(July 25, 2007 - Honolulu Airport, HI)  Greetings from the land of Aloha!  Beautiful beaches, sunny day after sunny day, delightful evening breezes, breathtaking views, gracious people – if it’s not paradise, Hawaii is at least a  good working model. 

Of course, that’s not what brought me here.  The Federation came to Hawaii to conduct a day-long, intensive workshop, graciously hosted by the Hawaii Credit Union League.  We presented educational sessions at NAFCU’s hugely attended conference (including one, shockingly, at 7:30 on a Saturday morning).  We visited low-income credit unions.  We worked hard (most of the time).

No, it’s not Hawaii’s obvious enchantments that mellowed me.  What has most captured my imagination is the regulatory environment for credit unions.  As a long-time  advocate for low-income and small credit unions, I routinely hear a litany of complaints about examiners who bully managers and boards, who don’t make allowances for local conditions or unique markets, who spring surprises, who seem to delight in finding fault – “Gotcha (again)!” – who, in short, create and foster an adversarial relationship (perhaps a little like Jurassic Park, filmed partly on Oahu).

In Hawaii, time and again, I heard from credit unions and examiners, “We do things a little differently here.”

To read the full letter to the editor, please click here.