WASHINGTON — Bill Spearman, CEO of the $590 million Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union will testify to his credit union's experience with credit card use by small business members at a hearing today before the House of Representatives Small Business Committee.
Spearman, who serves on NAFCU's Education Committee and will testify for the association as well, will describe how his credit union, which used to serve primarily the employees of an IBM manufacturing facility in Kingston, New York, had to cope with widespread job losses among its members when the IBM plant shut down in 1995.
Part of what the credit union did was to provide its members with some of the capital they needed to transition away from their old jobs at IBM and toward new careers, many as budding entrepreneurs, Spearman said in his prepared comments.
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"Credit card lending plays an integral role in providing much needed capital for our small business members to grow their companies," Spearman wrote in his prepared testimony. "Currently, 61 MHVFCU business members have business credit card accounts with our credit union. This represents a total credit limit available of $600,000, of which $200,000 is in carried balances. The largest credit limit among these 61 businesses is $30,000. Absent the capital provided through credit cards these businesses surely would not be as successful as they are today and unemployment would likely be higher," he added.
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