Apart from phone banks and a Hike the Hill fly-in slated in two weeks, the industry's assault on the Durbin interchange amendment is taking advantage of social media vehicles as well as newfound collaboration with banker groups in trying to secure lawmaker support in the House-Senate conference committee.
For one, the League of Southeastern Credit Unions said it already has set up district meetings for next week with the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama and the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee Rep. Spencer Bachus, also of Alabama.
The league, which represents both Alabama and Florida CUs, said its call to action has included participation by CEOs on CUNA's online/phone conferences and will even include using twitter to speak with credit unions about the issue and a special interchange tool kit it has developed.
Meanwhile, NAFCU said it conducted a conference call with CEOs of its member CUs Thursday noting also its earlier legwork several weeks ago on the committee in alerting CUs about the ramifications of the Durbin proposal.
The League of Southeastern CU's, said "there are many layers to this amendment, but the bottom line is that our members may have their card services disrupted or be penalized for making purchases with a debit card."
NAFCU said like CUNA, Independent Community Banks and the American Bankers Association, it is an active member of the Electronic Payments Coalition, heavily involved in the lobbying task.
