It seems that many people deeply involved with credit unions have time for little else but to eat, sleep, and breathe credit unions. That observation caused Editor Paul Gentile to wonder out loud at an editorial meeting exactly what do busy credit union folks do beyond the job? They certainly...

The escalating effort by banking industry strategists to attack the long-standing credit union tax-exemption state-by-state (five to date) after repeated failures at the federal level, is a classic divide and conquer approach. So is disguising their motives. In each state where the state banking association has already played its hand,...

In between paralyzing snow and rain storms, the huge annual CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference in D.C. once again came off with a familiar sameness, but several differences too. Here are some random observations: * The record turnout of 3,000-plus again strained the conference facilities of the Washington Hilton Hotel. For...

Although the American Bankers Association is often very critical of NCUA, it appears that the head of one of the ABA's "branch offices," Howard Headlee, President of the Utah Bankers Association, has decided to become a big supporter of the federal credit union regulatory agency. Why else would he initiate...

Anyone involved with credit unions knows that every credit union should be focused on serving members and meeting their changing financial needs and do it better than any other financial institution can serve its customers. A couple of years ago CUNA launched an ambitious national branding campaign which included this...

As usual, there is a potpourri of news items and related developments taking place that deserve a comment or two. Like these: The Enron et. al scandals have led to new thinking in the corporate world that could spill over into credit union land. More specifically, there is growing sentiment...

Time to have some fun. That's what this column is all about. Look ahead if you can to the 30th anniversary of Credit Union Times. That would be the year 2020. Here are some of the front page headlines you might see: *

The list of what banking industry lobbyists find objectionable about individual credit unions and CUs in general is a very long list that seems to be getting longer by the day. Add to that list, bankers' complaints about national and state credit union trade groups, as well as state and...