If you don't tell people what is on your mind, they'll neverknow. The credit union industry has taken this to heart on theinterchange issue.

Gerber Federal Credit Union President/CEO John Buckley,testifying on behalf of NAFCU, and CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheneywill represent credit unions at a Financial Services subcommitteehearing on Wednesday during CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference.The timing is impeccable (and probably not coincidental) asthousands of credit union executives and volunteers swarmWashington and will surely pack the typically overflowing hearingroom.

The hearing topic is on the effect of Dodd-Frank has on smallfinancial institutions and small businesses. You'll recall that wasthe legislation that required a cap on interchange fees, which Sen.Dick Durbin defends on page 12 of this issue of Credit Union Times.The two credit union representatives should be able to provide anearful on that and slip in several other key issues of interest tocredit unions.

Interchange will be a primary topic for the hearing as will theBureau of Consumer Financial Protection. However, since creditunions' primary mission is serving consumers and not profits, theissue of capital reform is a nice fit. Risk-based and supplementalcapital are two avenues to building an even more safe and soundcredit union system while expanding their services. They should besold as such during the hearing.

But credit unions are not the only ones speaking up for smallerdebit card issuers. Even Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and KayHagan, who initially supported the amendment, are expressingconcern that the regulation would create a de facto interchange feecap for small issuers. It's yet another instance where politicstrumped substance.

Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged (see ourpage 1 story) the possibility–you and I would say certainty–thatsmaller financial institutions will be caught up in the interchangecap despite the toothless exemption.

Credit unions must effectively reframe this as: We will nolonger be able to offer free checking to your constituents, Mr. orMs. Member of Congress, because you did this to us, and we'll makesure our members, your constituents, know it. Explain how muchmoney your particular credit union could actually lose when a databreach does strike and debit cards need to be replaced. Make use ofProject Zip Code to show how many members reside in a particularrepresentative's district or a senator's state.

There's not much time to act. The Fed's rule must be approved byApril 21, so the showing must be strong and clear. Every singlecredit union sending representatives to the GAC must take action inkilling this statutorily required regulation.

And the underlying issue of interchange fees is not going away.Next could be an affront on credit card interchange fees.

In other news, Har-Co Federal Credit Union has decided to floatthe idea of converting to a bank to its members. As I've saidpreviously, it's always a matter to study to determine what wouldbe in the best interest of the members.

The credit union has said in its disclosures it needs to convertto be able serve more people, yet it hasn't even tried to expandits field of membership since 2002.

Maybe that's not the whole story, but we don't know at thispoint because the credit union has not responded to inquiries fromCredit Union Times. That's not a good idea, as I'll explain to theaudience of the New Jersey Credit Union League's Reality CheckConference.

Given the current economic and regulatory environment, it seemsnow more than ever there could be legitimate reasons to considerconverting to a bank. However, credit unions are in charge of theirown fate. Credit unions can look at new products and services orjust new ways of delivering them. They can seek out new markets toserve within the credit union charter. They can head to CapitolHill as a cooperative group working together toward a common goal,like capital reform. Or they can die off one by one through merger,liquidation or convert one at a time to banks. Which sounds good toyou?