Governance Best Practices for Credit Unions

Credit unions are facing an increasingly complex operating environment that demands more and more sophisticated corporate governance and management skills.   Changing regulatory requirements, increasing operational sophistication—especially in the technological areas like IT and mobile service delivery—and unexpected operational challenges like the Covid-19 Pandemic are occurring simultaneously and within an increasingly competitive market for credit unions.  This session will provide corporate governance training for credit union boards of directors and senior managers based on the latest best practices and regulatory guidance, including how well-managed credit unions understand how good “governance” is conceptually different from day-to-day “management” of the institution.   

• Learn the specific governance roles of the three components of a banking institution: its management, its board of directors, and its owners (i.e. the shareholders or members).
• Better understand what prudential regulators are looking for when they examine your institution for “Management” quality (i.e. the “M” in “CAMELS”)
• Gain insights into principles and best practices that govern top board and senior management performance.

• Corporate governance
• Fiduciary Duties
• Enterprise Risk Management

Good corporate governance and management are key drivers of a credit union’s success, with the institution’s board of directors and senior managers having distinct but complementary roles, and the institution’s owners (i.e. its members) also playing a distinct and important role.   Board members of credit unions  and other financial institutions must understand their governance role and exercise sound judgment about their institution’s affairs so that they can establish the institution’s strategic objectives and values, set, and enforce lines of accountability, and ensure that senior management conducts appropriate oversight.  While the board of director’s role is to make strategic decisions, the institution’s senior management including its President/CEO, however, should be responsible for the day-to-day “management” of the organization such as directing staff and ensuring the fulfilment of operational duties and programs established by the board. 

• Board Member
• CEO
• CFO
• COO
• CRO
• General Counsel
• CLO
• Compliance Officer

Michael Edwards is an attorney-at-law with extensive experience representing banking institutions and credit unions on a wide range of regulatory matters. He has served as Senior Vice President for Advocacy and General Counsel for the World Council of Credit Unions, an international trade association for credit unions and cooperative banks where he advocated before international and national-level banking regulatory agencies including the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He has also served as Senior Assistant General Counsel in the Regulatory Advocacy section of the Credit Union National Association, the largest trade association for credit unions in the United States. Michael has been published on banking and credit union regulatory matters by the Administrative Law Review, Enterprise Magazine, CU Management, and other publications. He holds a J. D. from the American University-Washington College of Law, an M.A. in International Affairs from the American University-School of International Service, and a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania.