I've represented consumers for 20 years in Washington, D.C. Ontelevision or radio my answer to the question "What's the bestbank?" is always "Bank at a credit union, not at a bank." In thelate 1990s, my organization, U.S. PIRG, joined the ConsumerFederation of America in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court andthen in lobbying Congress in favor of preserving strong creditunion field of membership rules.

But for that entire twenty years I have wondered: Why do thecredit unions line up with the banks on every legislative andregulatory issue? Aren't the credit unions member-ownedalternatives to banks? Shouldn't they be better? I sometimes wonderwhether, after the savings and loan collapse of the 1980s, creditunion management was taken over by former S&L executives.

Which brings me to today's discussion of the Dodd-Frank WallStreet Reform and Consumer Protection Act. It will establish thelandmark Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and it will addneeded reforms to the currently anti-competitive swipe fee, orinterchange, marketplace.

The last I checked neither of these reforms will harm creditunions, which got special carve-outs from both.

First, it is true that credit unions, like nearly all other bankand nonbank financial firms, will be subject to the rules of theCFPB. That makes sense for consumers. No matter where we shop forfinancial products, we'll have one set of rules.

But in a nod to the grassroots power of credit unions and smallbanks, both will only have the rules enforced by their existingprudential regulators. So, I am extremely disappointed that somecredit union leaders are claiming that despite this massivecarve-out credit unions should still oppose the bill.

Anyone who doubts that the CFPB is the biggest victory forfinancial consumers since deposit insurance is living with theirheads in the sand.

And anyone who claims that the CFPB will go off like an unguidedmissile at the credit unions-instead of at the payday lenders andbig credit card and mortgage companies that have caused consumers,taxpayers and the economy so much grief-is just wrong. I know someof you will say, "Oh, Ed is misrepresenting our opposition. Itisn't that at all, it's just this regulatory paperwork burden, blahblah." Not true.

Actually, the CFPB will simplify overly complex, sketchyconsumer products and make it easier for your compliance staffs, soget past that one, too.

Second, the Durbin amendment's reform of interchange swipe feesalso includes a carve-out for credit union debit cards.

The interchange marketplace is out-of-control. Even the federalgovernment cannot negotiate the hundreds of millions of dollars inswipe fees it pays. U.S. swipe fees are the highest in the world.As the card networks migrate consumers from cash and checks todebit, the incidence of swipe fees continues to grow. Allconsumers, including cash customers, end up paying more at thestore and more at the pump because merchants can't negotiate swipefees or advise their customers of lower cost payment options.

So, the Durbin amendment does two things. First, it gives theFederal Reserve authority to determine that most debit swipe feesare reasonable and proportional, but it carves-out credit unionsfrom that requirement. Then, it eliminates unfair contractualpractices that prevent merchants from offering legal cash discountsor telling consumers about lower-cost options. I have yet to meetthe reform that improves transparency that isn't good forconsumers.

The market hasn't allowed negotiation or competition, so thegovernment is being asked to step in. What is wrong with that?Meanwhile, Visa and MasterCard are happy to have the sympatheticfaces of credit unions fighting on their front lines.

I am encouraged that some credit unions are establishinglow-cost alternatives to unsustainable payday loans and that creditunion account features are more pro-consumer than bank accountfees. I wish, for once, credit unions would line up in Washingtonwith their member-consumers instead of with the big banks time andtime again.

Ed Mierzwinski is Consumer Program Director at thenon-profit, non-partisan U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Heblogs at www.uspirg.org/consumer-blog