“It would probably lead to-over a period of 10 or 20 years or so-the elimination of the credit union movement in the United States,” said CUNA President and CEO Dan Mica of taxation. It would change the fiduciary responsibility of the institution from its depositors to its shareholders and, Mica said, it is safe to assume that they would all make the stock conversion. “It would be a tragedy for the American consumer.It would be a tragedy for American finance,” he said. Credit unions, Mica explained, serve as a “counterbalance to for-profit institutions.a safeguard.” Without credit unions, the banks and former credit unions “could charge much higher fees and make much higher profits.” The boards could reap significant profits and there would be stock options galore for management. Mica added, “I think the philosophy would be out the window.” “For the institutions, there are a lot of positives. For consumers, I can't think of a single one,” Mica stated. CUNA's research shows that credit union members save $6.3 billion a year by using a credit union over a bank while bank customers save $4.2 billion with the competition credit unions provide to the banks. “All in all,” he summed up, “that's a $10 billion annual loss if credit unions were to be taxed and put out of business.” But credit unions need to do a better job of documenting how they serve their entire fields of membership. “I think that it's almost inevitable that some kind of documentation will be required of us either directly or indirectly,” Mica commented. “We will never satisfy our enemies.” he observed, “but it will help our friends better defend us.” Documentation requirements could take the form of a law, or a well-done voluntary effort, or come from the regulator. “I will be telling credit unions that the time has come that we need to do more documenting,” Mica promised.