Registration Opens for PALS Workshop on Member Business Lending

Free Workshop March 25 in San Francisco

January 8, 2004, Alexandria, Va. – Credit union leaders may now register for the free member business lending workshop to be offered by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) March 25 in San Francisco. It will be the fifth workshop in NCUA Board Member Debbie Matz’s Partnering and Leadership Successes (PALS) initiative, and the second to focus on member business lending.

“Our member business lending workshop in Washington, D.C. was so successful – and we’ve had so many requests to repeat it – that we are taking this show on the road,” explained Matz, who scheduled the workshop jointly with NCUA Vice Chair JoAnn Johnson. “Hosting this workshop in San Francisco will give credit union leaders in the West an opportunity to decide whether member business lending is right for their credit union.”

“This workshop will also devote more time to NCUA’s enhanced member business lending regulation,” Johnson pointed out. “By March 25, our regulation will have been in effect for nearly five months. This will be a very opportune time to see how the regulation is working in the field, and how it empowers credit unions to help small businesses with financing needs.”

The agenda features a dynamic lineup of speakers who will share ideas for federal and state credit unions to safely make more member business loans. Government experts and business loan consultants will also address risk factors and explore partnership opportunities.

To view the agenda, register for the workshop, and reserve a hotel room using NCUA’s group rate, visit www.ncua.gov, click PALS, then click Schedules.

Co-hosts for this workshop include the California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington credit union leagues, and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions.

NCUA, governed by a three-member board appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, is the independent federal agency that regulates, charters and supervises federal credit unions. With the backing of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, NCUA operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, insuring the deposits of more than 80 million account holders in all federal credit unions and the overwhelming majority of state-chartered credit unions.