DENVER–One analyst who believes NCUA oversight over third-party vendors is inevitable is encouraging credit unions to drive the process rather than letting regulators do so.
The same analyst is also cautioning credit unions to recognize that vendor management is going to look substantially different two years from now.
Tony Ferris, managing partner with the Rochdale Group, is calling for what he called an “enhanced partnership model” for vendor management with input from credit unions and vendors. “This is not a regulatory issue,” he said. “This is a competitive advantage issue.”
The GAO recently recommended NCUA be given expanded powers to oversee third-party vendors; many state regulators already have such authority.
Ferris told the joint World Council’s World CU Conference/CUNA America’s CU Conference that the objective must be to ensure that credit unions’ competitive advantage remains and that the unique value proposition of CUs is leveraged.
“I believe we have a HUGE opportunity, and Rochdale believes there is a competitive advantage if we’re willing to take it,” said Ferris. “There’s never been a greater opportunity since the inception of credit unions than today. We, along with Millennials, we’re all looking for values in our lives. But we have to stop grasping at the banking model to distinguish ourselves from what’s going on.”
CUToday.info will have a full story in the coming days.