The leadership at Coast Capital Savings is pursuing the ‘journey’ to become a federal credit union. A few members of Coast Capital have expressed some alarm at the manner in which the consent of members was pushed through to authorize the project. I have also written a couple of posts (Bank?, and Sales Culture). […]
Ownership and Accountability
Director Expectations and Burden
Recently Central 1 has said that changes are planned for credit union director training. The proposed threefold increase in the size of the program invites real scrutiny and critical discussion. It would be one more big burden on small credit unions! In BC currently, directors are required to complete a program that is determined by […]
Regulatory Over-Reach
This week FICOM hosted a conference for BC credit union directors, the sixth such annual event they have mounted. Presentations from commission staff were augmented by a speaker on ‘Building Effective Boards’, Bev Behan. The reporting out on FICOM and CUDIC activity was to be commended and some good questions were raised. And while the […]
Bankers` Long Game
Consolidation and cartel building is the long term strategy of the Big Banks and it seems to go on without much alarm. This is partly because of their patience and partly because other players are distracted by other things; technology, risk management, new capital rules, new liquidity monitoring tools, mortgage insurance changes, etc.. But these […]
The ‘co-op’ business model
At a meeting of local credit unions a few nights ago there was good discussion about two competing visions; (1) a network of community based credit unions who collaborate to benefit from economies of scale and (2) a large integrated national back office corporate ‘subsidiary’. There is tension as larger credit unions express impatience, resent […]
Coast Capital Sales Culture
Questions are being put to Canadian banks about ethical sales practices. Are consumers being sold things they do not need? Are banks picking people’s pockets? Such questions may also be put to Coast Capital Savings, BC’s second largest credit union, now proposing to be a bank. The members of Coast Capital Savings Credit Union are […]
Privatizing Credit Unions Incrementally
A headline in Enterprise Magazine provoked me. The text talked about ‘… collectivizing Canada’s provincial centrals and CUSO’s’ when it was introducing an article on the restructuring and streamlining of second tier entities. In fact the reverse is true. In our quest for greater efficiencies (and scale), control is being concentrated in fewer and fewer […]
What is Full and Fair?
FICOM is seeking input on the application from Coast Capital Savings to go federal. One question posed by FICOM is, “Have members been provided with full and fair disclosure upon which to make their decision?” Members of Coast Capital were asked to vote on a special resolution in November. “Full and fair” is not a […]