Coalition for Credit Union Charter Options, Adams, Trade Insults

WASHINGTON – Tempers have been running high among both the opponents and proponents of credit union-to-bank charter conversions as the DFCU struggle has heated up. A flurry of letters from the Coalition for Credit Union Charter Options and David Adams, CEO of the Michigan Credit Union League, illustrate the point. The coalition kicked off the exchange with a March 31 letter to Adams and the entire MCUL Board in which, among many other things, CCUCO Executive Director Lee Bettis expressed incredulity that "your board of directors has sanctioned your reckless and hypocritical behavior." Adams responded to the banker group with a same day reply, noting that CCUCO even has the words "credit union" in its name. "How can an organization run by bankers, that actively supports the bankers associations' strategy of `contain and convert' profess to advise credit unions or credit union associations on anything?!" Adams wrote. "You would be better off advising the bankers associations and I would expect that relationship is already strong and cordial." The exchange continued with an additional letter from Bettis, which Adams declined to answer beyond a note saying they would have to agree to disagree and a letter from Terry Denmark, CEO of the $17 million Dearborn Village Community Credit Union, which Bettis had disparaged for its contribution to the DFCU Owners United group. Denmark shared his remarks to Bettis in a letter to Credit Union Times. (See page 16.)