WASHINGTON–The American Bankers Association has launched a digital broadside against credit unions called “Reform Credit Unions.”
Accessed via the ABA’s website or here, the Reform Credit Unions site is dedicated, according to the ABA, to calling attention to the critical need to examine and modernize the laws and regulations related to credit unions.
Among the rules, regulations and laws the ABA wants addressed include:
- Not paying federal (and often state) income taxes, to the detriment of local communities
- Abandoning their original purpose and mission to serve low-income people
- Using their tax subsidies to buy banks and expand their market share in high-income communities
- Unfairly benefitting from lax oversight by federal and state regulators
- Avoiding appropriate Congressional oversight, as credit unions’ regulatory agency, the National Credit Union Administration, is not strongly regulated
Pull-Down Menu
Across the top of the website are headings with pulldown menus include Cost to Taxpayers, Lack of Accountability, Abandoned Mission, Unwarranted Advantage, and Impact in Your State.
“All of this poses risks to local communities and economies, and contributes to unfair competitive advantages for large credit unions at the expense of smaller credit unions and community banks,” the ABA states on the site. “Reform Credit Unions believes that leveling the playing field—tax and regulatory parity—is of vital importance to all Americans, and most especially to the customers and supporters of small credit unions nationwide, who are under constant and increasing competitive pressure from large credit unions’ abuse of the existing legal and regulatory structure.”
The ABA asks Congress to “examine and modernize” the tax-exempt status of credit unions, with the site offering a “Take Action” button bankers can use to generate letters to policymakers.