Self-Help CU v. PayDay Lender Fight Hits Durham Paper

DURHAM, N.C. – The ongoing fight between Martin Eakes, CEO of the $184 million Self-Help Credit Union and the payday loan industry made its way into the Durham News and Observer on Nov. 4. As reported in Credit Union Times in mid-October, the article described the effort mounted by the Consumer Financial Services Association, the payday lenders national trade association, to attack Eakes and Self-Help after the credit union had lobbied successfully against payday lenders in the State. Part of that effort included drafting an article attacking Eakes and Self-Help with the Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank in Washington D.C. which the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal think tank in Madison, Wisconsin, reported has in the past attacked the American Cancer Society at the same time it was taking funding from Phillip Morris, a leading cigarette manufacturer. Both NCUA and the North Carolina Division of Credit Unions went on the record in the article backing Self-Help's response that none of Capital Research's charges were true.