Dollar: Risk-Based Capital, Reg Reform Critical To Stave Off Conversions.

LAS VEGAS -- Banks want credit unions to be prohibited from growing and competing, Dennis Dollar says. And unless CUs see several significant changes, including their capital system and the way they are regulated, the future is bleak, he warns.

Dollar, former NCUA chairman and principal partner of Birmingham, Ala.-based Dollar Associates, told attendees of the National Association of Community Credit Unions (NACCU) annual conference here a banker recently asked him: What do you call a credit union in 2010 without growth options? When Dollar said he did not know, the banker replied: "a bank."

According to Dollar, credit unions will face choices in six important areas in the weeks and months ahead that will determine if they will continue to be viable providers of financial services: capital …