Links in “Credit Unions”

Several years ago, NCUA took over and settled a suit filed by seven credit unions that claimed that Western Corporate Credit Union (Wescorp) and its senior management had been negligent and breached their fiduciary duty when they engaged in risky investment practices. Now the NCUA has been ensnared in a case brought by the US government against Standard and Poor’s that claims the ratings agency deliberately manipulated risk ratings on mortgage-backed securities. The government’s case cites Wescorp and three other failed corporates and has subpoenaed documents from the NCUA to support its case. To date, NCUA has refused to comply. [7/31/14]

Does your staff understand that a seemingly casual conversation with a member could potentially lead to a claim of discrimination? The example provided in this article has likely occurred in your credit union.

Distributed denial of service attacks are getting bigger, more sophisticated and harder to detect according to leading technology providers. Many attackers are now using “amplification” techniques that attack multiple servers with a communication that appears to come from a victim’s IP address and the response back is often thousands of times larger than the original message, causing huge disruptions. [7/30/14]

A recent survey of 286 small business owners reveals that many small business owners don’t apply for business loans because they don’t believe that credit is available for them. However, the findings show that a majority of small business owners are afraid of taking on debt and use other avenues for financing needs, such as personal savings and personal loans from family members. [7/30/14]

Alan Theriault, founder and CEO of CU Financial Services, thinks so. Theriaut’s firm, which is the leading consulting firm for credit union to bank charters, says that the pending changes to risk-based capital requirements, should cause many credit union boards to give serious consideration to a charter conversion. [7/30/14]

What do Batman and your compliance officer have in common? Well, quite a lot, according to AffirmX's Dennis Agle. He explains how outsourced compliance solutions enhance, not replace, your compliance officer. [7/29/14]

NCUA Director of Insurance and Examinations Larry Fazio has sent copies of the FinCEN Guidance on Marijuana-Related Businesses to states where the sale of marijuana is legal. CUNA states that more definitive guidance from NCUA would be preferred to what the trade association sees as over-reaching due diligence guidelines provided by FinCEN. [7/29/14]

Thought your home banking site was secure because you use two-factor authentication? Think again. 34 financial institutions in four different countries have had their systems compromised by a new threat dubbed “Emmenta.”  No US institutions have yet been the subject of a similar attack, but given the fact that the countries involved used a more sophisticated authentication process than is generally used here, it may just be a matter of time. [7/29/14]

Sometimes low rates and fees are just not enough to attract new credit card applicants. Combine those features with a well-oiled marketing campaign and you’ll likely see better results. [7/28/14]

Finally, someone is asking the important question of whether the burdensome Regulation D is really serving a useful purpose. The House Financial Services Committee will begin markup of a bill on Tuesday that calls for a study of the effectiveness of Regulation D. The study is to look at how Reg. D has been used to conduct U.S. monetary policy, its impact on reserves at financial institutions, the impact on consumers, and what alternative approaches there may be. [7/28/14]