Sunday, November 14, 2010

Are Credit Unions Engaging Their Members?

In publicizing the credit union difference, credit unions regularly talk about their members as owners. However, are credit unions engaging their members as owners or are their members really just customers in the eyes of management?

What got me wondering about this question was a November 4th letter on Cooperative Operating Philosophy from the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the regulator of the Farm Credit System (FCS), to Farm Credit institutions, financial cooperatives serving agriculture.

The letter encouraged Farm Credit institutions to engage their members as owners.

"Members need to know and understand their rights and benefits of ownership and be informed of the many ways they can exercise those rights and participate in the control of their institution."


While not mandating, the FCA wrote that FCS institutions could engage their members by:

1) posting their bylaws on their website;
2) ensuring that members petition rights are understood and fully supported; and
3) informing members how they may bring matters to the attention of the board or the membership as a whole.

I then went to several credit union websites including Navy FCU, State Employees CU, Altura CU, and Safe CU. I could not find their bylaws or any information on petition rights.

If management is not engaging members to participate in the control of their credit unions or providing them with the necessary information to participate in their institutions, then there may be a principal-agent problem.

1 comment:

  1. You raise an interesting point. I have seen several credit unions use various items on the FCA list you posted, but never bylaws. (However federal CUs generally use the standard bylaws on NCUA's website.) I've seen a few CUs post one of these: code of ethics, complaint or dispute process, contact information for individual directors (rare), and annual meeting procedures (i.e. for nominations from the floor). And in searching for this kind of thing I noticed Australian CUs post their constitution - which looks to be similar to bylaws.
    I think it's a good recommendation, but as a former CU insider it never occurred to me.
    As far as a principal-agent problem, maybe potentially it is. But how is it different from other mutuals?

    ReplyDelete

 

The content is provided for educational purposes only, with the understanding that neither the authors, contributors, nor the publishers of this site are engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other expert or professional services. If legal or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Comments appearing in response to articles appearing on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of the ABA. ABA makes no representations regarding the truth or accuracy of commentary or opinions that may be posted in response to the articles that appear on this website.

The inclusion herein of any link to a website, either in the text of an article or in a comment, does not denote any approval, sponsorship, or endorsement by the ABA, and ABA is not responsible for the content or opinions expressed on those linked websites or related commentary. This content is not licensed to third parties sites and is not affiliated with any third party site. Any reference to the author or this content on any third party site on the Internet is not authorized by the ABA.

It is the policy of the American Bankers Association to comply fully with all antitrust laws. Certain discussions should be considered off-limits, including those that contain competitively sensitive data such as price and cost information, or statements that could be construed as reflecting an attempt or desire to control or influence a particular market or markets. Future pricing or other prospective competitive information should never be shared.