If you haven’t read it yet, Vic Pantea expressed his displeasure with Todd Harper and his statements decrying the CUSO rule that was recently passed 2-1.
I agree Harper has been a breath of fresh air as to the hope for the future of our industry and ALL credit unions, but his response here is straight out of the NCUA we all see as an agency that will never save a single credit union. They simply quote the status quo that change is never right for today; it is always clouded by the view of the long term and that once approved, nothing can be adjusted.
The NCUA is an organization of no vision for making a series of moves, or being confident in their ability to adapt and modify solutions once they get rolling. One and done in their opinions as if they were the Supreme Court setting precedent. Instead they should be acting consistently to try new things, then improve on and rethink them for current organizations that need innovations, not trust in the tried-and-found-lacking approaches that are leading only to the consolidation of our industry.
Everything is a slippery slope, and will too quickly get out of control before they can adjust—because they cannot adjust—they simply copy others or stick to the guns that will doom the players who need change the most.
Harper should show more faith in the future, and the need to adapt the agency for living and adapting solutions based on new leadership traditions at the NCUA. Ninety percent of all credit union opportunities that will be sourced to credit union balance sheets and income statements will come from indirect outlets in the future, and hopefully from collaborative industry organized outlets. Why not start with CUSOs as the major player in sourcing opportunities to credit unions? Do it now, evaluate them often, and adjust while there are still credit unions to save.
Car dealers might have made the concept of indirect a negative one for some, but others may find ways to source members, source loans, source all account types, and service income to credit unions with different results. One day an industry that aggregates opportunity sourcing as well as maximizing direct opportunity might be the model even the NCUA counts on.
As non-credit union industry players make more and more proposals to create opportunities centers for credit unions to draw on—such as third party sourced Neobank vendors—our industry and regulatory leaders might regret shutting out industry efforts to be the primary players that would fit our industry’s motivations, ethics, and constant investment for all credit union ships to rise. Trust CUSOs, do it now.
Harper is wrong here…. Tell Me Why I’m Wrong!
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