WASHINGTON - CUNA is calling on thousands of credit union executives and directors to write letters to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in opposition to the Bush administration’s proposal to merge NCUA into the FDIC.
In a “Call to Action,” CUNA provided a model letter for the credit union representatives that says the Treasury proposal “would spell the end of many of the most trusted financial institutions in today’s market place: America’s credit unions,” and urged the representatives to use their own phrasing at certain passages to make the letter more convincing.
The letter includes several talking points, like: one of the most unfortunate parts of the proposal is that it apparently does not understand or ignores the powerful role that the cooperative structure plays in credit unions; putting credit unions under the supervision of an agency, 94% of whose regulated institutions would be banks, is the same thing as eliminating credit unions; credit unions provide enormous benefits to their 90 million members (insert example from your CU); eliminating the credit union charter puts those benefits at risk.
The letter includes different talking points for credit union CEOs and for volunteer directors.
From CEOs: I take seriously what our credit union does for our members. I don’t own it, our members do. My personal stake in this is much less than it would be if I were a banker.
From CU Board Members: I’m very proud of what our credit union does for our members. I don’t own it, our members do. I’m not even paid for my service on the credit union’s board.
