WASHINGTON — CUNA has reacted with strong comments after Bradley Rock, Chairman of the American Bankers Association, listed competition from "Government- Advantaged Institutions" including credit unions and the farm credit system as its third most important legislative priority.
Rock wrote in the ABA Banking Journal for January 2008 that the ABA would oppose moves from such institutions to "expand into the banking business" and cited specifically its efforts to encourage the Internal Revenue Service to "reevaluate" whether either credit unions or farm credit should retain their tax benefits.
Rock put opposing credit unions and the farm credit system as the third in the ABA's list of priorities, significantly behind security and regulatory reform concerns, areas where bankers could make common cause with CUs who are also concerned with implementing "more effect and focused programs to fight terrorist financing."
CUNA CEO Dan Mica reacted strongly to the ABA priority list. "Just as they did several years ago when they ranked attacking credit unions higher than safeguarding the U.S. from terrorism, the bankers again have their priorities way out of whack," Mica said.
"The mortgage crisis–to which more than a few banks contributed–is at the root of the economic problems now facing the country, yet it too now falls below attacking credit unions on the bankers' wish list," he said.
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