The FDIC's push to get more banks involved in payday alternatives puts the limelight once again on credit union products.
A Pennsylvania "model' came up in discussion last week at a hearing with CU and NCUA representatives taking part.
In a rare presentation before an FDIC panel, Michael Wishnow, senior vice president of the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association, described the success of the nearly three-year old "Better Choice" program offering hard-pressed members small low rate loans tied to savings accounts.
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FDIC Chair Sheila Blair invited PCU and NCUA, represented by Justin Anderson, staff attorney, to take part in the proceedings of the agency's Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee made up of bank CEOs looking "how to make the FDIC's two-year small dollar loan pilot program more profitable" to participating banks.
"This is the second time we have been invited to testify in front of FDIC Chair Sheila Bair and it was both extremely rewarding and humbling to know that we are among the national leaders in helping low and moderate income, working consumers, move toward economic self sufficiency," said Wishnow.
The Better Choice program currently has more than 82 CU participants at 215 locations issuing more than 20,000 loans totaling more than $9.3 million dollars.
"We wouldn't mind being invited back again," said Wishnow as the FDIC proceeds with its pilot effort.
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