The Wisconsin Bankers Association argued that most of thestate's credit unions are not near their respective member businesslending caps.

For that reason, the trade group continues to be skeptical about the need to raisethe 12.25% of assets MBL threshold. A House subcommittee held a hearing on MBL legislation on Wednesday.

“Currently, nine credit unions in Wisconsin are exempted fromthe member business lending cap. The majority of the other creditunions are nowhere near the lending cap,” said WBA President/CEORose Oswald Poels. “And, if they were close to the cap, they couldsimply petition state regulators and likely would receive awaiver.”

Citing “public data,” Poels said the following Wisconsin creditunions' MBL caps are greater than the 12.25%: $1.2 billion Royal CU(35.66%), $295 million Westby Co-operative CU (28.48%), $171million Heartland CU (25.85%), $110 million Community CU in LaCrosse (22.48%), $192 million Superior Choice CU (19.06%), $728million Westconsin CU (18.99%), $907 million Covantage CU (17.47%),$795 million Fox Communities CU (13.86%), and $52 million TomahArea CU (13.06%).

“If credit unions would like to have the discussion aboutexchanging their tax status for increased business lendingprivileges, we will be the first one at the table,” Poels said.

The Wisconsin Credit Union League recently criticized banks thathave used the Treasury Department's Small Business Lending Fund claiming the financial institutionsare actually using it to pay off debt from the Troubled AssetsRelief Program rather than aid small businesses.

Banks claim that paying off higher-interest obligations frees upcapital for business lending, but that ignores the shell game bywhich Main Street citizens are footing the bill, and averagecitizens who own or are employed by small businesses won't be theones who benefit,” said Brett Thompson, WCUL president/CEO.

Poels said critics of the fund are not aware that the depositorybank portion of TARP is now making a profit for taxpayers. CitingTreasury data, she said since a $245 billion investment in theCapitol Purchase Program portion of TARP was made in 2008, $256billion has been collected through repayments and dividends.

“The U.S. government chose to use CPP as an investment indepository banks to stabilize credit markets and inject liquidityto stimulate lending and economic activity. That investment didexactly what it was supposed to and has made a profit for thetaxpayer,” Poels said.