ARLINGTON, Va. — When it comes to clout for the credit unionindustry in Washington, two voices are definitely better than one,NAFCU President Fred Becker said last week.
He said two trade associations enable credit unions to be aneffective counterbalance to the banking industry, which has twomain trade groups, the American Bankers Association and theIndependent Community Bankers of America.
“There are enough credit unions for two groups,” he said during adinner speech to the Metropolitan Area Credit Union ManagementAssociation. “There is a long history in this country of diverseopinions. There is no one voice in lots of areas.”
Becker, who answered questions from Credit Union TimesEditor-in-Chief Sarah Snell Cooke, noted that NAFCU had taken thelead in persuading Congress to increase the lending capability ofthe Central Liquidity Facility. But he also noted that the twoassociations have worked together to ensure parity for creditunions in the Troubled Assets Relief Program and their recent jointstatement on the need for supplemental capital.
Earlier this year, several executives of credit unions that eachhave several billion dollars in assets issued a white paper callingfor the consideration of a merger between CUNA and NAFCU, sayingthat it would save money and raise the industry's profile. NAFCUhas rejected the idea while CUNA is open to it.
Becker also noted that although credit unions were being hurt bythe current recession, banks were being more adversely affected. Hesaid the number of banks is getting smaller at a faster pace thancredit unions are declining.
He pointed out that in recent years credit unions have become morevisible and this is a mixed blessing, and the mainstream pressdoesn't always understand the nuances of credit unions.
“Credit unions have come of age. The good news is credit unions aremore visible. The bad news is credit unions are more visible,” hesaid.
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CUs Can Apply to BSA Advisory Panel

WASHINGTON — Credit unions can apply for the one spot allocatedto the industry on the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group.
The panel, which provides input to the Financial Crimes EnforcementNetwork on the implementation of the act, is made up ofrepresentatives of banks, credit unions, the credit card industryand other financial services providers.
Applications, due Jan. 8, 2009, must include: the name of theorganization requesting membership, point of contact, title,address, e-mail address and phone number. They must also containthe vacancy for which the organization is applying, a descriptionof the financial institution or trade group and its involvementwith the BSA, and an explanation of the reasons why theorganization's participation will help the group.
Applications must be mailed to: Regulatory Policy and ProgramsDivision, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, P.O. Box 39,Vienna, VA 22183 or e-mailed to: [email protected].
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Marketers Torn on Social Networking

DALLAS — While the majority of marketing executives feel thatthe economic crisis will hurt 2009 budgets, not many are eager totap into social networking sites.
Despite the Facebook and MySpace phenomenon that has grown in justfive years, 55% of the chief marketing officers at leading brandssurveyed by marketing service firm Epsilon said they're not toointerested (22%) or not interested at all (33%) in incorporatingthe social networking sites into their marketing strategies.
Though dialogue marketing is a trend in the industry, just 10% ofCMO survey respondents reported using these social sites in theirmarketing plans. Internet forums (52%), Webcasts and podcasts(47%), e-mail (47%), blogs (37%) and Webinars (52%) outscoredFacebook and MySpace (35%) in terms of being social media elementsthat marketing executives said they are very interested or somewhatinterested in using.
“These sites narrowly appeal to college and high school students,providing a challenge as far as measuring results and yielding alimited amount of actionable data,” said Steve Cone, CMO ofEpsilon.
Yet 27% of marketing executives identified social networking andword of mouth as the tool they most want to introduce to theirmarketing mix to compensate for anticipated budget cuts.
Other key results from the CMO survey are as follows:
o CMOs bracing for budget reductions identified e-mail as thechannel they are least likely to cut back on versus any othertools.
o While just over half of the companies surveyed already useconsumer data mining, 23% more said that they plan to utilize thetechnology in the next 12 months.
o Fifty-five percent of those not already employing Web analyticsplan to do so in the next 12 months.
o Customer loyalty and rewards programs remain polarizing, with 33%of companies already using the strategy and 17% planning to use inthe next year, but 50% not using or planning to use.
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N.M. Freezes Dues Again

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cognizant of margin pressures within theindustry, the Credit Union Association of New Mexico said last weekit is freezing membership dues again in 2009, the fourth straightyear.
“While our organizational costs continue to increase, CUANM'snondues related activities help to absorb the impact normallypassed on to member credit unions in the form of dues increases,”explained CUANM President/CEO Sylvia Lyon.
She said the trade group's financial performance allows management“to return this savings to our credit unions. We realize howdifficult it is for our members to sustain their earnings in theseuncertain times, and we hope that this will be another signal ofhow much we appreciate their support year in and year out.”
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African-American CU Coalition
Seeks Lifetime Award Nominees

SHREVEPORT, La. — The African-American Credit Union Coalition islooking for the next recipient of its annual Pete Crear LifetimeAchievement award.
The recipient will have demonstrated support for the credit unionphilosophy of people helping people, have organized or providedsignificant assistance to credit unions in need, and constructivelyaffected the infrastructure, growth, legislative, regulatory, imageor service delivery capacity of the credit union movement,according to AACUC.
The recipient will be a volunteer or professional who has beeninvolved in the credit union movement for at least 10 years,including credit unions and credit union-related tradeassociations, regulators and vendors. The recipient must have beenactively engaged in the success of the AACUC through successfulcommittee work, advocacy, financial donations or other supportiveactivities noted by the AACUC board of directors.
The nomination deadline is Dec. 31. Winners will be notified by nolater than Feb. 1. The award criteria and application can be foundat www.aacuc.org.
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Downturn Will Catch Card Brands Too

NEW YORK — Visa and MasterCard were considered insulated fromthe economic downturn by the nature of their business. Neitherbrand actually lends money to consumers and each makes money fromthe use of debit and credit cards.
But a New York investment firm last week officially took askeptical position toward the two card brands by downgrading them.Cowen and Co., an investment banking, brokerage and research firm,moved Visa and MasterCard stocks from outperforming other stocks tounderperforming them.
According to press reports, the firm downgraded the stocks based onwhat it considered deteriorating fundamentals, essentially that thecard brands are not immune from the overall economicdownturn.
For MasterCard, the firm estimated that strength in the company'snon-U.S. purchase volume has been offsetting a materialdeterioration in U.S.-based purchase volumes and that theseweakening trends will make it difficult for the card brand to meetits income targets.
For Visa, the company doubted that consumers' continuing attractionto debit cards would be enough to shield the card brand from lossof income. In the end, the company estimated, declining employmentfigures cannot help but impact the ability of consumers to spend,including on their debit cards.
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