WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) became involved with credit unions for the most classic of credit union reasons: as a way to help those who were underserved by traditional financial service providers.
"I lived in a community which was redlined for financial services — loans for housing, loans for insurance, even consumer loans — people found themselves going to finance companies [and] paying usury rates," Moore told Credit Union Journal recently. "And I belonged to a community-based organization — the Midtown Neighborhood Association — and really got involved with protesting, demanding that banks within the area comply with the Community Reinvestment Act. Finally we just said 'Look, let's just start our own financial institution. Instead of complaining, let's organize.'"
That led to the chartering of Cream City Community FCU, thanks to a $100,000 capitalization loan from the Fed, recalled Moore.
"I got off the board of the Midtown Neighborhood Association and became a VISTA organizer, and we organized from scratch — literally hustling up the furniture and fire-lined safe we had to have." VISTA, or Volunteers in Service to America, is now known as AmeriCorps VISTA.
Over time, Cream City Community FCU merged with Falk CU and today operates as $483 million Marine CU in Fond du Lac, Wis. While Moore was new to the concept of CUs at the time, the experience was a pivotal one for her. "It really launched me into a new era of civil rights activism," she said. "My predecessors in the civil rights movement, people like the venerable John Lewis, were concerned with access to public accommodations, voting rights, things I'm still concerned about. But I saw the new era of civil rights being financial services — access to loans at reasonable rates. And my adventure with credit unions turned out to be a lifelong passion."
Part of what attracted Moore to CUs, she continued, was that "they're clearly the model for low-income communities, working-class communities, even internationally for third-world countries. I have seen credit unions grow up in churches and really exemplify and model the community of interest model I think is so fundamental. I think people felt guilty when they didn't pay their credit union loans because there was this niche lending that made it easier."
Both Sides Of The Aisle
Looking ahead to the next Congressional term, Moore noted that the CU tax exemption is something that must be kept intact, in part, she said, because "even though credit unions have more money [than they used to] and there are some larger credit unions, most credit unions are very small, and they really do adhere to the small, community-based model."
Just as important as protecting the tax exemption, she added, is preserving the secondary mortgage market for CUs. Moore is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, and she said she was "concerned" about the PATH Act proposal from Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) that would reform housing finance.
"The so-called 'utility' that he proposes in his PATH Act would be controlled by the largest banks, making access to the secondary mortgage market for credit unions so much more difficult," said Moore.
In spite of a legislature that remains deadlocked by partisan differences, Moore said that credit unions are lucky because they are well-liked and respected by both parties, making it easier for CU issues to break through the deadlock in the next Congress.
"Even though there are fights and power struggles at the leadership levels, one of the things that's really been effective at breaking through the logjam is when in the case of credit unions, everybody has constituents who are credit union members," she said. "It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. And to the extent that banks are still not lending to average folks, to the extent that banks are still shy about providing that much-needed capital for teeny-weeny businesses, I think there will be plenty of people on both sides of the aisle who will strive to work with each other to protect the credit union niche."
