Ms Carmel Motherway:

In that case I will be brief. I perceive there is an underlying and fundamental risk and vulnerability present in the credit union movement and I am not satisfied that this has been fully addressed, possibly, by the work of the commission. I am a little concerned about the extent to which it is reflected in the heads of the Bill. To put it succinctly, my suggestion is that the emphasis is on capital adequacy and a position is set for a minimum reserves amount - there is no real maximum amount but an optimum amount is suggested. My point is that a small credit union which does not have even 7% of reserves but with a very broad and diverse saver base, in our experience in our work, seems to be in a stronger position than even a very large credit union that suffers from a savings concentration, even when that larger credit union has a good degree of capital adequacy of 10% of reserves or greater. That is the basic point we want to make.