A recent CUNA CompBlog “back to basics” post examines supervisory committees for federal credit unions. The entry discusses who can be appointed, what the committee’s purpose is, and addresses whether or not committee members should attend a credit union’s board of directors meeting.  

Supervisory committees are appointed by a credit union’s board of directors, and consist of 3 to 5 members. 

Responsibilities include: 

• Ensuring members’ funds and interests are protected; 
• Organizing the audit and providing reports on the accuracy of financial records; 
• The authority to call special meetings to consider unsafe and unsound practices or violations of law, regulations, charter or bylaws; and the power to suspend directors and other board committee members; and 
• Act as the board of directors such as in a situation when all board positions become vacant simultaneously. 

While any member of the credit union may be appointed by the board of directors to be on the supervisory committee, several positions are prohibited.  

Those include: 

• Credit committee members; 
• Loan officers; 
• Membership officer; 
• President; 
• Vice president; and  
• Board secretary. 

The supervisory committee serves three primary purposes: 

Quality control monitor, to ensure that the management and board of the credit union establish practices and procedures to properly safeguard members' assets; 

Auditor, to check the accuracy and reliability of accounting data. As such the supervisory committee is responsible for organizing or conducting the annual audit and a member account verification at least every two years;  

Ombudsman, to review and investigate members' complaints received directly by the supervisory committee, or for those not resolved to their satisfaction by credit union management. 

Supervisory committee members may attend board meetings; however, the credit union’s board has the right to determine who may or may not attend its meetings. 

In addition to CompBlog, CUNA’s Compliance Community contains discussion boards and a number of other resources for credit union compliance professionals around the country.