A move by the National Credit Union Administration to allow large credit unions to issue subordinated debt for regulatory capital purposes from outside for-profit investors—such as corporate debt markets—while retaining their tax exemption, undermines the statutory principle that credit unions should serve consumers of small means, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols wrote in an […]

With apologies to Dickens, 2020 has been for credit unions both “the best of times and the worst of times,” with the largest credit unions – those with over $1 billion in assets – outgrowing, out-lending, and, in many cases, out-surviving their smaller counterparts. According to the National Credit Union Administration’s latest Quarterly Credit Union […]

It seems like a constant hypocritical refrain from credit unions as they seek to move beyond their mission and purpose: We cannot pay federal taxes because we are not banks … And yet, we demand to be allowed to be banks in everything but name when it comes to business lending and beyond. Case in […]

It’s odd that the credit union industry is using the ongoing global pandemic to make a desperate push for expanded business lending authority and broader “common bonds.” When Congress gave credit unions the tools weeks ago to make forgivable loans to struggling small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program, they weren’t interested. Through the end […]

Credit unions spend a lot of time and millions of marketing dollars touting their commitment to their members and to the greater cooperative good. “For people, not profit” is so ubiquitous a saying among the promoters that it is nearly as over-used as giant credit union PenFed’s “great rates for everyone” commercial jingle. If you’ve […]

An op-ed by Rob Nichols, American Bankers Association president and CEO, and Steven J. Lepper, president and CEO of the Association of Military Banks of America, appeared in American Banker on June 18, 2020. Read an excerpt below and the full op-ed here.  Here are just three examples of the gifts the NCUA can now […]

From a blog post published today in the ABA Banking Journal: “Congress has the tools to make sure large credit unions do a better job of meeting their 1934 statutory requirement to serve people of modest means, and that starts with the Community Reinvestment Act. For more than 40 years, CRA has required banks to […]

In the wake of the recent Tax Foundation analysis of how the credit union federal income tax exemption continues to be an unfair and unwise policy another taxpayer watchdog, the National Taxpayers Union this week released a major new report highlighting the massive hit to federal coffers caused by large credit unions not paying their […]

Once upon a time, people could only join the PenFed credit union if they shared a “common bond” with other members through an affiliation with the military. Such restrictions were once offered as a reason large credit unions were exempt from paying federal taxes. How things have changed. Tysons, Va.-based PenFed rolled out a splashy […]

2019 wrapped up in record fashion for the nation’s largest credit unions. And unfortunately for American consumers and taxpayers, what’s good for these so-called “not-for-profits” isn’t good for the people that pay the bills. Let’s consider just a few issues from the year that was. Unchecked bank buying – 18 deals in a single year. […]