Must Reads

ReguLation

CFPB Eyes Overdrafts

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray said his agency is discussing how best to proceed on additional regulations concerning overdraft protection and other checking account disclosures. The CFPB could issue proposed rules later this year.

He said the CFPB is worried about the practice by some financial institutions of clearing checks in a sequence that causes some consumers to pay higher overdraft charges. He made his com- Y22

Fear and
Loathing in
n. Carolina
EXAMS

JiM RuBenstein

jrubenstein@cutimes.com

LegisLation

Exam Bill Lingers

The disagreement between financial institutions and regulators over changes in the exam process may not be resolved on Capitol Hill any time soon.

The House Financial Services Committee hasn’t scheduled a markup of a bill to allow financial institutions to appeal exams to an administrative law judge. A spokeswoman for the panel declined to say whether or when such a session might occur.

No companion bill has Y22

Multiple Causes Cited in Failed Bids MERGERS

JiM RuBenstein

jrubenstein@cutimes.com

he postmortem on last
month’s two failed merg-
er attempts that were
victims of member op-
position hits on three ingredients:
poor communications, a rushed
timetable and lack of enough ad-
vance explanation to constituents
and the public.

or another week, the dispute over the CAMEL rating disclosure involving the NCUA, the North Carolina Credit Union Division and the $23 billion State Employees’ Credit Union of Raleigh, N. C., continued to roil the state’s CUs as managers expressed new frustration and anxiety over dual exams.

“This is all a tempest in a teapot, and we’re the teabag,” said Joy Watts, president/CEO of the $78 million Carolina Postal CU of Charlotte, N.C., one of 52 state-chartered CUs subjected to lengthy, unscheduled NCUA exams, some of which began Jan. 21.

LegisLation

Hike for MBL Increase

WasHington — With legislation to raise the cap on member business loans languishing in committee, CUNA reached out to business groups to help make its case.

Business owners and credit union executives joined forces on a Hike the Hill to lobby lawmakers on a range of issues, including a measure that would raise the cap on MBLs from 12.25% of assets to as much as 27.5% of assets.

CUNA and NAFCU have Y24

Banking Vet Helps Clackamas FCU

MBL

The examiners “were courteous, helpful and tried to educate us on what they were doing,” but it created a great amount of stress and seemed unnecessary and a waste, said Watts.

MiCHeLLe a. saMaaD

msamaad@cutimes.com

f you ask Jon Gramenz, a former banker with more than 20 years of commercial lending experience, what still boggles his mind about credit unions, his answer comes swiftly.

“They share everything,” he remarked.

Gramenz made that discovery shortly after being hired at the $216 million Clackamas Federal Credit

the Rundown

Y Sunset has $29M in assets and is not interested in growth.

Y The credit union offers electronic banking but not shared branching.

Y Most of the staff has been there more than 10 years.

Union in Milwaukie, Ore., in May 2010 to revamp the cooperative’s stalled business lending program. While he considers himself a commercial lending veteran, he had never retooled or launched a program. A credit union in a different area stepped in to offer assistance with the pricing structure.

“There’s a definite difference with banks,” said Gramenz, Clackamas’ business services officer. “But I think it’s because we’re all working for members and that carries over.” Hiring Gramenz was one piece of the strategy to bring Clackamas’ business lending program back to life, said Kimo Rosa, lending services manager. When area banks were laying off seasoned business loan officers in 2009 and 2010, the credit union used that opportunity to its advantage by bringing Y22

The CU executives described an
NCUA “blitzkrieg” of mostly Mid-
west examiners fanning across the
state to do the exams that resulted
from the NCUA-state regulator con-
flict. As one put it, this controversy
“should have been resolved long
ago by reasonable adults.”
Under its new policy, the NCUA
sent examiners to the state-char-
tered federally insured CUs because
that SECU’s September disclosure
of its CAMEL 2 score meant the
agency could no longer rely Y20

Tablet Opportunity While everyone is beating the drum about smartphones, tablets may be the most important mobile device right now, said one expert. Y16