NEW YORK – Less than a week after the Wall Street Journal ran the headline “Credit Unions Bailed Out” over a story about NCUA placing three more corporates into conservatorship, the newspaper headlined another story about CUs “Credit Unions Receive TARP Bailout Funds.”
As with the initial story, the reporting is accurate regarding the Treasury Department distributing $69.91 million to 48 CUs as part of a program aimed at boosting lending to small business. The funds are part of Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and were distributed to community development financial institutions.
In response to the initial Wall Street Journal story, credit unions and their trade associations issued public statements and CUNA CEO Bill Cheney was featured in a video aimed at consumers in which the message focused on the inaccuracy of the headline – in that credit unions have received no “bailout” or federal funds for the conservatorships. At press time there was no word on whether credit unions would respond to the second story.
