MADISON, Wis.— The political and public-relations fight over credit unions buying banks is widening again, with the Wisconsin Bankers Association launching a fresh attack after Landmark Credit Union’s agreement to acquire $419-million American National Bank-Fox Cities, and the Wisconsin Credit Union League firing back that bankers are recycling misleading tax arguments as more bank deals move forward.
The Landmark transaction, first reported by CUToday.info last week, is the fourth credit union-bank acquisition announced in 2026 and would push Brookfield-based Landmark past $8 billion in assets.
In a statement, WBA President and CEO Rose Oswald Poels called the deal “a concerning national trend,” said taxpayers should be “urgently alarmed,” and argued the transaction alone would cost an estimated $850,000 in annual federal tax revenue because “unlike banks, credit unions do not pay any state or federal income taxes.” WBA also said the Landmark deal marks the ninth credit union-bank acquisition in Wisconsin history and claimed the M&A process is “clearly broken,” with tax-paying banks unable to compete against what it called “ridiculous multiples” offered by large credit unions.
The Wisconsin Credit Union League answered with a sharp rebuttal, accusing bankers of using “dubious talking points” to suppress credit unions and limit consumer choice. The League said WBA omitted that American National Bank-Fox Cities is an S-corporation bank—meaning it also does not pay corporate income taxes—and noted that since 2020 Wisconsin has seen 36 bank sales, 31 of them bank-to-bank deals. Those bank-to-bank transactions totaled $15 billion in assets, compared with less than $2 billion in bank-to-credit union deals, the league said, arguing the broader context undercuts the bankers’ claim that credit unions are somehow dominating the state’s M&A landscape.
The latest clash lands as bank trade groups step up a coordinated national campaign against credit union acquisitions of banks. As CUToday.info recently reported, ICBA used its ICBA LIVE 2026 convention to launch its new “Illusionists” campaign, accusing large credit unions of using “financial magic tricks” to justify their tax exemption while expanding through acquisitions. That effort followed a growing drumbeat from bankers in multiple states, including recent pressure in Illinois and elsewhere as bank groups seek to turn bank sales to credit unions into a broader legislative and political issue rather than just a deal-by-deal fight.