After Interchange, CU Lobby Must Live to Fight Another Day

The Independent Community Bankers of America had the right idea not partnering with the big banks in the interchange battle. In a letter to state bank trade associations discovered by Bloomberg, ICBA CEO Camden Fine, more colorfully than I’ll write here, stated that Wall Street doesn’t care about the community banks but “only care[s] about the credibility small banks can wield on Capitol Hill to get them out from under this rock.”

The same holds true for credit unions. Will the big banks be supporting credit unions’ efforts in the coming weeks to push through legislation to expand their member business lending authorities? Heck, no. But credit unions stood arm-in-arm with large banks against debit card interchange fee regulation.