In advance of Thursday's NCUA board meeting, the AmericanBankers Association on Wednesday called for Chairman Debbie Matz torethink a proposal on credit union field of membership.

In a letter to Matz and the other members of the NCUA board,ABA's incoming President/CEO Rob Nichols said the proposalsteps outside the bounds laid out by Congress, allowing creditunions to move even further away from the narrow common bonds thatdefine their missions.

The letter quickly prompted a response from NAFCU and others.NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger penned a letter to leaders on theSenate Banking Committee and the House Financial ServicesCommittee. In it he said NAFCU was disappointed the ABA chose toattack the proposal before it was even released and the detailswere known.

“It would seem that they are only interested in attacking creditunions and their 101 million members, rather than creating soundpublic policy. Perhaps the banking trade association should havepaid this much attention to their own members and actions prior tothe financial crisis. If so, maybe their members, the nation's bigbanks, would not have faced over $100 billion in fines, settlementsand buy-backs stemming from the financial crisis,” Bergerwrote.

John McKechnie, partner at Washington-based advocacy firm TotalSpectrum and former Director of Public and Congressional Affairs atthe NCUA, told CU Times, “The fact that ABA is commentingon possible field of membership reforms before the rule is even outspeaks volumes about the political resistance this rule willencounter from the bank lobby.”

McKechnie urged credit unions not to ignore the comment process,and called for credit unions to respond with smart, substantivecomments.