3 examples of confidentiality and its limits

by. Henry Meier

One of the trickiest questions facing businesses of all sizes, regulators, lawyers and policy makers is how to draw a line between encouraging the disclosure of information in an age when a smart phone gives an employee access to more information than imaginable just five years ago but the need for confidentiality is as important as ever.

Example 1:  credit unions are justifiably concerned over NCUA’s decision to give the public access to a risk-based net worth calculator designed to give credit unions a snapshot of how they would fare under the agency’s proposed RBNW framework.  NCUA justifies its decision to make the calculator publicly available by stressing the need to have an informed public debate on this important issue.

Given the agency’s steadfast commitment to public discourse, I find it odd that it takes the agency two weeks to make an online video of its monthly board meetings available.  If you want to take a look at NCUA’s February 20th board meeting, it is available now.  There are people like myself for whom real time access to NCUA’s decisions and explanations as to why they are making the proposals they are making would be invaluable.

NCUA should take its commitment to openness to the next logical level and start offering real time broadcasts of its monthly meetings.  If the NCUA truly believes that the public deserves real time access to an individual credit union’s potential net worth then surely that same public deserves timely information about NCUA’s latest regulatory initiatives.

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