CHICAGO–CUToday.info provided readers with more than 6,500 different pieces of content during 2015, including coverage of significant issues with far-reaching consequences for credit unions.
But it was a testy exchange between two people that was the most widely read story in CUToday.info during the year.
The story CUToday.info readers clicked on more than any other was this: “McWatters, Matz in Sharp Disagreement During Meeting.” The story detailed the open hostility between NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz and NCUA Board Member Mark McWatters during the Nov. 22 board meeting at which the two locked horns in sharp disagreement over the agency’s budgeting process, whether it has been manipulating the overhead transfer rate, and whether a separate regulator for credit unions is even needed anymore.
Among the most provocative of statements made by McWatters:
- A statement that as the number of federal charters declines NCUA has “redeployed its examination resources to state examinations, thereby increasing the insurance-related hours” and, as a result the overhead transfer rate that largely funds the agency.
- A statement suggesting that NCUA may no longer be needed and should be merged into another regulator.
Matz, McWatters Disagreement
McWatters’ statements to the board meeting were followed by Matz saying it was so full of “misinformation” that she couldn’t respond to it all.
The spat wasn’t the first time the two board members clashed during the year.
Earlier in 2015, McWatters said NCUA should not treat members of the credit union community as “Victorian era children,” and also asserted that NCUA should “renounce its imperious ‘my-way-or–the-highway’ approach to the agency’s budget process.”
In response to McWatters’ suggestion that he had not been provided with all the information needed to make decisions, Matz responded, “There are those who would rather complain than participate and the staff will participate with the board on as many issues as the board would like, as long as the board would like. Possibly that’s the result of your lack of interaction, not the staff’s.” Matz also made a veiled reference to the fact McWatters continues to live in Texas.
Most Read Story
The story that was most read during 2015 can be found here
And what was the second most-read story of 2015 in CUToday.info? It was a story once again about an NCUA board vote, this one the October vote to put the risk-based capital proposal out for comment. That story can be read here.
And if you’re wondering what non-NCUA-related story was most read? It’s actually a close tie between a number of stories related to abduction/robberies of CU employees in their homes that took place during 2015, beginning in Connecticut and followed by multiple such abduction/robberies in Tennessee. Those stories are here and here and here. Other related stories can be found by searching “Abduction” on CUToday.info.