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NAFCU's Fred Becker answered questions about the CFPB, NCUA, corporate stabilization and more during a "private conversation" Tuesday that drew more than 300 participants and a standing ovation. – Hathcox photo

July 10, 2013 – NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker drew a standing ovation Tuesday during his final "private conversation" – which drew more than 300 member representatives – at NAFCU's 46th Annual Conference and Solutions Expo in Boston.

Becker's "private conversation" has become a staple of the NAFCU Annual Conference and typically draws frank questions from participants and candid responses from the NAFCU chief executive. Today's was the last such conversation to be included on the NAFCU conference schedule as Becker prepares for his retirement at the end of this month.

Becker kicked off today's session with a shout-out to Executive Vice President of Government Affairs B. Dan Berger, who is gearing up to succeed him in the top executive post. He also thanked the NAFCU staff whom he hired and who remained with the association throughout his tenure, and he thanked NAFCU's members for their much-welcome support over the years.

The NAFCU president also talked about a range of issues important to credit unions, including:

• The future of the CFPB – It's not going anywhere, Becker said, so credit unions need to accept this consumer watchdog agency as part of the reality of being a federally regulated consumer services industry going forward.
• Corporate credit union stabilization – NCUA will certainly have recovered losses incurred by the largest corporates, but how deeply that will carve into the stabilization costs credit unions will bear over time remains to be seen.

The session also included discussion of the credit union federal corporate income tax exemption.