Vice Chairman Hood Continues to Promote Risk Mitigation During His 2009 Risk Mitigation Summit
February 20, 2009, Alexandria, VA – National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Vice Chairman Rodney E. Hood hosted his third annual NCUA Risk mitigation Summit yesterday at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The event was filled to capacity with leaders from government and industry anxious to gain further knowledge regarding the current economic situation and what they can do to mitigate risk.
Vice Chairman Hood welcomed the crowd and thanked the presenters for their participation during such a demanding time for the financial industry. Mr. Hood has been a passionate advocate of enterprise risk management (ERM) throughout his tenure as Vice Chairman of NCUA.
“I take risk management very seriously and believe that risks should be managed, not avoided. Implemented successfully, ERM enables management to effectively deal with uncertainty and associated risks,” Vice Chairman Hood said.
This year’s summit was particularly timely as the NCUA Corporate Stabilization Program was publically addressed for the first time during a question and answer session. Owen Cole, director of the NCUA Office of Capital Markets and Planning, together with John Kutchey, acting director of the NCUA Office of Examination and Insurance explained why it was necessary to institute such a program and followed up by answering many questions probing for further details. For program details, click on the “Corporate Stabilization Program” link located on the NCUA homepage: http://www.ncua.gov/CorporateStabilizationProgram.html.
The keynote address was delivered by Robert D. Manning, PhD, Research Professor and Director of the Center for Consumer Financial Services, Rochester Institute of Technology and the creative force behind the Responsible Debt Relief (RDR) algorithm. Dr. Manning is a consumer finance expert and the author of Credit Card Nation. As the founder and president of the non-profit corporation, ResponsibleDebtRelief, Manning’s innovative algorithmic breakthrough assesses household debt capacity and the debtor’s ability to repay outstanding loans. The mission is to alleviate the debt problems of the “near bankrupt” and others undergoing serious financial stress.
“It gives credit unions the opportunity to recalibrate and get their members on an even keel during this extraordinarily difficult recessionary period,” Manning said. As a fellow with the Filene Research Institute, Dr. Manning is launching an RDR pilot program with the California and Nevada Credit Union League’s. The program meets the NCUA threshold for charge-offs and therefore will be able to meet examiners’ standards of proof. For more information and a full downloadable copy of the Responsible Debt
Relief report, please visit: http://filene.org/free/manning or http://www.creditcardnation.com/pdfs/Manning_RDR_Filene_08_F.pdf.
Richard Dorfman, President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta delivered a message of partnership and cooperation. With 8,100 credit union partnerships, Dorfman pointed out that credit unions represent the Federal Home Loan Banks fastest growing segment and he encouraged them to tout their successful model…”Study yourselves because you will be called upon by regulators and others who want to know ‘how did you do that.’”
In closing, Vice Chairman Hood thanked program participants and all in attendance for making the 2009 NCUA Risk Mitigation Summit such a success. “It is my hope that the insight and information gleaned from today’s event will help promote the institution of successful ERM programs throughout the financial industry,” he said.
The National Credit Union Administration is the independent federal agency that regulates, charters and supervises federal credit unions. NCUA, with the backing of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, also operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), insuring the deposits of nearly 89 million account holders in all federal credit unions and the majority of state-chartered credit unions.
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