WASHINGTON, DC (February 23, 2014) -- National Credit Union Administration Board Member Michael E. Fryzel said today the credit union industry must learn from the past, but not be locked into the past, when facing challenges ahead.
“As credit unions and the entire financial service industry continue to change, we need to look forward,” Fryzel said. “Use the past as a relevant guide, improve and sharpen your tools based on experience, but do not assume for a minute that future challenges will bear any resemblance to past problems.
“The Federalist Papers asked what I think is a critical question,” Fryzel said. “Are we capable of establishing good government through reflection and choice, or are we destined to make decisions by accident and force? I sincerely hope it is the former path, illuminated by serious, smart thinking and reasonable application of experience and knowledge.”
Fryzel spoke to credit union officials at the “Defense Issues 2014” meeting hosted by the Defense Credit Union Council here today. During his remarks, he praised the member credit unions of the Council for serving those who serve in the nation’s armed services, for helping expand the middle class, and for demonstrating the importance of cooperative credit unions to the country’s economy.
Fryzel took his audience back through the extraordinary efforts that marked the response to the recent financial crisis and then talked about how NCUA has “applied the tough lessons learned from the market meltdown” to current regulation and supervision. He also spoke of the need for “right-sizing” regulation, such as the newly proposed rule on risk-based capital, in order to meet the twin responsibilities of protecting the credit union system without overburdening it.
The Defense Credit Union Council is a non-profit trade organization for credit unions serving the Department of Defense Community. The full text of Board Member Fryzel’s remarks is available online here.
NCUA is the independent federal agency created by the U.S. Congress to regulate, charter and supervise federal credit unions. With the backing of the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government, NCUA operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, insuring the deposits of nearly 96 million account holders in all federal credit unions and the overwhelming majority of state-chartered credit unions.
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