WASHINGTON-If legislators paid attention to attendance figures at the two recent credit union and bank industry gatherings in D.C., they'll see CUs brought many more constituents to hike Capitol Hill.
But that, apparently, isn't enough to help credit unions' priority piece of legislation, the increase in the member business lending cap (see related stories, page 1).
According to a Credit Union Journal analysis of conference meeting data from CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference and the American Bankers Association's Government Relations Summit, which were both held at the same time in March, credit unions had more than three times the industry attendees (2,342) than banks (668). Also, by almost two-to-one, credit unions (863) outdistanced banks (484) in the number of institutions represented.
A larger percentage of big credit unions attended than big banks-of the 13 total CUs larger than $5 billion, 10 arrived in D.C., while of the 172 banks larger than $5 billion, 88 showed up. Credit unions, too, were better represented across all asset sizes.
