The Florida Bankers Association is livid over the idea of a potential $3 billion dollar merger between Space Coast Credit Union and Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union.
"Eastern was the poster child of credit union abuse," said Alex Sanchez, president/CEO of the banking group. "If they do merge, all the luck in the world to them because that's a bad situation going worse."
Sanchez said Eastern Financial's troubles are the result of what happens when large credit unions "go way out of bounds." He emphasized that he does not have a problem with the 90% of credit unions that are "fulfilling their missions."
"Regulators need to seriously think about this. These are tax-exempt banks masquerading as credit unions."
Given the economy, Sanchez posed two questions to the credit union industry: "In this struggling economy, why should a family of four struggle to pay state and federal taxes and not a billion dollar credit union. Why should a small business struggling to meet payroll on Friday pay more in federal and state income taxes than a credit union."
While Space Coast has announced its intent to merge with Eastern Financial, NCUA said a merger is just one of several options being considered at this point.
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