Compliance Blog

Written by Carrie Hunt, NAFCU's General Counsel and VP of Regulatory Affairs

On Wednesday, NCUA issued Legal Opinion Letter 12-1007, indicating that credit unions can change charters if they want to effectuate a voluntary merger.  You may notice that the letter is not addressed to one person, but is in response to a number of inquiries.  I think a lot of those inquires must have been mine.  And when I make an inquiry- a good 98.564377654% of the time - it is on behalf of NAFCU members.  For years I have heard from our members who had difficulty getting a charter change approved if the purpose of the change was to merge with another healthy credit union.  This issue has been one that I have been working on in some capacity for the entire eight years I have been at NAFCU.  From my perspective, the purpose of the charter change is irrelevant if it is a permissible charter.  Now it appears that NCUA agrees.  

I am thrilled that our members who want to take advantage of this will be able to.  I am thrilled that NCUA’s General Counsel Mike McKenna has issued his letter.  I am thrilled that NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz sees the value in working on these types of matters and providing relief to credit unions.  And finally, I am thrilled that I have now freed up a slice of time to move on to the next issue!  Because there always is a next issue - and that is the way I like it!  Keep ‘em coming NAFCU members and I will keep trying to fix them.  I just hope it doesn’t always take eight years!  

***

Editor's Note by Steve Van Beek:

Congratulations Carrie!  The Credit Union Times has been running a Women to Watch feature where they recognize outstanding leaders in the credit union industry.  The CU Times recently opened it up to women working on behalf of credit unions - including NAFCU's very own Carrie Hunt, General Counsel and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs.

You can find more in the NAFCU Today, the Women to Watch profile and the accompanying video.

Congratulations Carrie - very well deserved!  

***

We'll be back blogging on Tuesday -  have a great holiday weekend!